4 Reasons Electric Cars Have So Far Failed In SA

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kingr
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4 Reasons Electric Cars Have So Far Failed In SA

Post by kingr »

Just before the turn of the last century, people were excited by the advent of electric cars. Although electric cars lacked the “vroom” of a typical sporty engine, most consumers weighed up the development of electric cars with one thing in mind - the environment. And, broadly speaking, electric cars would be a massive improvement in terms of pollutant emissions and overall environmental degradation, caused by the pursuit of fossil fuels.

That said, almost no electric cars dot South African roads in 2018. Why? Why has such a friendly and cost-saving technology not been gobbled up by consumers? Especially considering how our own Elon Musk has seen Tesla’s global success keep climbing? Perhaps you’re selling your car and wondering whether you can buy an electric car that comes with loads of benefits while avoiding many of the expenses and environmental issues cars normally carry? Well, not really, not yet, and here’s why.

1. People fear the unknown of electric cars
Car markets anywhere are defined by people who love the motoring experience and the technology involved. People love petrol and diesel engines, particularly here in the South African car market, and it’s hard to change that mindset. South African drivers tend to trust what they know, and they know petrol and they know diesel engines. Status is also often signaled by the roar and thump of sporty transmissions and accompanying exhaust burps, and all of that will seemingly disappear with electric cars.

There are also too many unknowns around electric vehicles for the average motorist. Even if consumers understand both electricity and motoring, marrying the two experiences is still a big ask, and makes the human psyche slump when adjusting to new tech. This isn’t just a car thing, but a human tendency. Any new tech has to wash over users with lots of bubbles and tingly feeling to experience adoption, and in the case of cars there is also a massive dedication to existing paradigms to overcome. This ties into the very next point below.

2. Electric car marketing has been poor
Possibly as a result of vested interests or simply a bunch of ad men who got it wrong, electric cars have been marketed erractically and generally poorly in South Africa. When last did you see a TV ad for a new car that runs on electricity? The motor manufacturing industry spends vast sums developing new prototypes and actually rolling them out via a production line. As opposed to the usual fanfare around any new launch, however, electric cars have had insufficient noise announcing their launch.

This is especially strange, when one considers that this is a particularly new technology. Development costs must have been steep. Marketing overtures should reflect this reality. One would have thought a massive campaign would still be in full swing, counting units sold every day. But this hasn’t been the case.

To be fair, marketing is also tied into ultimate user experience and, without a network of re-charging stations across the country, there is little point in punting electric cars to the public. It would appear that government ineptitude and typical lethargy has also impacted the rolling out of electric cars in the country, as government is unfortunately intrinsic to a nationwide network, one that has yet to appear.

Motorists are concerned about issues like trade-in values, and uncertainty surrounds electric cars’ place in the overall market. Unlike North America, for example, there are no tax or other incentives for citizens here to drive an electric car.

3. Electric cars are still impractical
Any single-car family will face challenges if that car is electrical. Compounding the scarce recharge options, time taken to recharge and thus limited range presents a vexing picture. Most families don’t have the option of shuffling school and work dictates to accommodate the needs of an electric car, without changing their own routines.

There are seldom charge stations at anyone’s place of work, taxing the car’s range, and any impromptu longer distance travels are off the menu in an electric car, so far. This is less a product of design limitations and more the absence of any government program that would see recharging stations installed countrywide. There is no overall South African green motoring agenda being pushed forward. Electric cars don’t address long-distance travel needs, as the range of most fully-charged car is simply too short, and won’t cover more than 300km in one go.

4. Electric devices take some time to charge
Apart from a current inability to road trip between provinces, electric cars take a “long” time to charge. Of course, everything is relative to individual perception, but at some point motorists tend to either come up against the impracticality of lost time, or the impracticality of employing unsupported technology.

There are very few public fast chargers available, but they’re also out of reach for most South Africans and home chargers are priced from R25,000. This is completely unaffordable for millions of South Africans. With the average electric car model needing an overnight charge to refuel to full capacity, although in effect a minor consideration, it still presents as unmanageable to the average consumer in the year 2018.

Electric cars in South Africa’s future
Probably the most prominent electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers in this arena for South Africans are BMW and Nissan. The two companies agreed to a nationwide grid of charging stations some time back, but that project has yet to gain traction.

As representative of consumer demands for a healthier lifestyle, it’s really government that should be driving the national grid that enables electric cars, much as it did with the taxi recap or even the Gautrain projects. Government should be at the forefront of the technology, offering tax incentives and other trade-offs to facilitate the rapid development of a national re-charging network. It remains to be seen exactly how long it will be before the government does, in fact, wake up to its obligations.

Arthur Coetzee, a Melrose Nissan sales executive, put it in a nutshell when noting that Japanese imports of the Nissan Leaf ceased abruptly early in 2018, as sales dipped to negligible levels. Right now, there is but a single model left on a Nissan showroom floor in Pretoria. Coetzee lays this squarely at the door of government, saying that “In 2014, they were supposed to have the infrastructure for chargers in South Africa, especially in the Johannesburg area; at shopping centers or at filling stations, which never happened.” He added that “Something needs to happen, so that manufacturers can agree to start exporting the cars to South Africa again.”

It seems the market is there, the consumer desire and manufacturing will is there, but until government lays out a grid like rail tracks across this land, owning an electric car is destined to remain a novelty for a while yet. This is a shame, as five or ten years down the road, European and American competitors will be gleaning the advantages of cleaner operations with all accompanying financial benefits, while at the same time using that business fitness to clobber us and everyone else lagging behind.
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