Why South Africa's EV ambitions are still stuck in low gear

Daily Maverick

29-06-2025

Naamsa is rolling out a nationwide electric vehicle network but South Africa's road to electric vehicle adoption is still filled with red lights.
Electric car sales topped 17 million worldwide in 2024, rising by more than 25% according to the International Energy Agency, but South Africa remains a slow starter in terms of this global trend.
The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) thinks it's time to stop stalling.
It's now laying the groundwork for a national network of EV charging stations, starting with 120 publicly accessible EV chargers along major transport routes.
Forecourts on the frontline
By geography and legacy alone, forecourts are perfectly positioned to capitalise on an EV transition, said Shivani Singh, chief projects officer at Naamsa. They've got the traffic, the location, the permits and the land.
Yet South Africa has fewer than 400 publicly accessible EV charging stations. Compare that to the 4,800 licensed petrol stations across the country, and the gap between what's happening and what's possible makes itself clear.
So, what's holding them back?
'There's a lot of things that face our retailers at the moment,' said Timothy Oliver, fuel specialist at Connect Group South Africa. Among the challenges are limited capital for the diversification of profit centres and limitations imposed by location and oil companies.
The days of surviving on a single filling station are numbered, which complicates management. 'We are seeing that the average retailer won't just sit with one site, they'll probably own between five and 10 sites,' Oliver said.
Naamsa plugs in
This is where Naamsa's latest rollout could change things.
The automotive industry body has begun work on a national network of 120 EV charging points, strategically positioned along key routes in the country, Singh said.
The rollout will include both ACDC fast chargers, publicly accessible and available for use.
It signals a commitment to usable public infrastructure for EVs to replace the broken plugs and barely functional charging stations currently scattered along South Africa's roads.
Traditional hybrid EVs achieved the highest sales in 2023. Plug-in hybrid EV sales continued to grow and battery EV sales experienced rapid growth in 2023. (Source: Green Cape, Graph: Kara le Roux)
The EV economy
South Africa has the mineral wealth required for the EV supply chain but lacks the infrastructure to process or capitalise on it, according to Singh.
'Our EV market is in extremely early stages,' she said. 'We're starting to see the use of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers for delivery purposes in the rest of Africa, but there's no EV passenger car assembly happening.'
Essential for the manufacturing of EV batteries are cobalt, manganese and lithium. Africa holds more than half of the world's reserve for these minerals, said Yael Shafrir, associate director at Webber Wentzel.
'South Africa's Section 12V tax incentive, signed into law in December 2024, offers a 150% deduction for local manufacturers of EV parts, effective 1 March 2026. It's a signal: industrial policy and trade are finally talking to each other.'
Leiandra da Silva, an economist at Nedbank, said South Africa's imports are growing at a faster rate than our exports at the moment, and growth in our key trade partners is not looking great either. Most EV charging hardware is imported from China, Singh said, making spare parts unavailable and repairs difficult.
Naamsa's charging infrastructure rollout presents an opportunity for localisation. As a part of this project, the association is trying to partner existing charging service providers with local businesses. 'Together they can install the infrastructure, maintain it, but also start to produce components that go into it,' Singh said.
It's a pragmatic move that aligns with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition's automotive master plan and also offers an entry point for South African businesses to participate in the EV economy.
How does this affect you?
If all goes to plan, small businesses might get a piece of the EV pie through infrastructure and parts manufacturing.
Fleet vehicles on fixed routes are best placed to make the EV switch early.
Naamsa's rollout promises fewer broken plugs and more reliable charging infrastructure.
Your local petrol station might get some charging hubs soon – if the owner can afford the upgrade.
Who can afford the future?
For all the infrastructure plans and policy ambitions, the fact remains that most South Africans can't afford an EV.
'These fully battery electric vehicles are still sitting at over R900,000 per unit,' Singh said. 'Our chief economist tells us that for quarter one 2025, 74% of new cars that were sold were under R500,000 in value. So South Africans have an affordability challenge.'
Another common concern among potential EV buyers is the fear of getting stranded, even though most EVs offer a range of more than 200km a day, Singh said.
More pressing is the resale value. With so few EVs changing hands locally, buyers don't know what their cars will be worth in five years, she added.
Where wheels keep turning
If motorists aren't totally onboard, Singh said there's an opportunity for the logistics and transport sector to carry the torch.
'We think the bus and truck segment is very well suited to making this transition to battery electric vehicles, primarily because they run fixed routes and these vehicles live in a depot a lot of their life,' Singh said.
Most depots already have backup power and fleet operators benefit from industrial electricity tariffs, she added. DM