Taking up the gauntlet for this four-day epic with Hiten Parmar, executive director of The Electric Mission, was Mikel Mabasa and Tshetlhe Litheko (naamsa – The Automotive Business Council), Kival Singh (First National Bank), Hideki Machida (KPMG), Greg Cress (Accenture), Nathan Fredericks (Industrial Development Corporation), Nicholas Brooks (British High Commission), Feroz Koor (Woolworths) and Duncan McLeod (TechCentral). The Electric Mission is a not-for-profit organisation based in South Africa with extensive experience in the electric mobility and energy sector through its leadership.
The fleet of electric cars included the BMW iX, BYD Seal, Mercedes-Benz EQS, Volkswagen ID.4 and Volvo XC40 – all models in the country. The number of electric model options available to local car buyers has grown significantly since the first in 2013, numbering more than 30 and mostly available in the past three years.
“Long-distance travel with electric cars is no longer the novelty it used to be," said Parmar. “Thousands of kilometres are driven every day in countries around the world. It remains relatively unique in South Africa as the electric car market is still in its infancy, but every long-distance journey reinforces that the country is on track to support this new form of mobility.”
Making the trek from Johannesburg to Cape Town, this road trip served as a celebration of 100 years of the automotive industry in South Africa, leading to the annual South African Auto Week event. It also highlighted that the automotive industry globally is transforming towards new energy vehicles.
“While South Africa has a good footprint of charge points locations across the country, arriving at charge points with multiple cars simultaneously was an expected challenge,” added Parmar. “There is a selection of fast DC charge points and standard AC charge points available along the entire route but these are single units at the majority of locations.
“Ideally, the country’s national charging network needs a diversity of suppliers and operators to bolster the reliability of the network, which will alleviate issues around range anxiety and charger availability.”
Despite the various charge point challenges, all the electric cars completed the 2 225 km trip over four days.
“Driving the scenic routes, making a number of countryside stops and taking the route from Johannesburg to Cape Town via Gqeberha provided a fantastic reminder of how spectacular the South Africa landscape is,” said Parmar. “Doing the trip in an electric car just adds a new dimension to splendour of the quiet spaces.”
In terms of performance, the electric cars had no trouble with the journey – also benefitting significantly from locations like the Swartberg Pass near Oudtshoorn and Sir Lowry's Pass in Cape Town that provided energy regeneration opportunities allowing the cars to recoup over 50 km of driving range on the downhill, adding extended driving distances that would ordinarily not be the case with a petrol or diesel car.
“Battery technology has been making great strides since the launch of the Nissan Leaf in 2013. These first-generation units were capable of about 160 km on a full charge while current generation cars can reach as much as 600 km or more,” said Parmar. South Africa now has 100% battery electric cars accelerating past plug-in hybrid cars sales year on year since 2019.
During Transport Month this October, the electric vehicle road trip highlights strategic pillar 8 of South Africa’s Green Transport Strategy: promoting hybrid and electric vehicles towards 2050 to combat 91,2% of road transport-related emissions across the transport sector.
