About 20km outside Wolmaransstad, along the N12 route between Joburg and Kimberley, there’s an unusual sight: long rows of solar panels laid out neatly in the arid scrubland common in this part of the country.
Alongside the rows of panels are a small farm stall and a forecourt motorists screaming past at 120km/h might mistake for some kind of filling station.
It’s a landmark development in South Africa’s nascent shift from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric mobility. Built by Zero Carbon Charge (now rebranding itself simply as Charge), the site is the country’s first completely off-grid electric vehicle (EV) charging station.
And even though it’s (mostly) powered by sunlight, the charging station, which includes six high-speed DC chargers, uses the very latest technology — and can supply up to a remarkable 480kW of electricity, provided the vehicle being charged supports it. Thanks to on-site batteries, the station operates 24 hours a day and offers a mix of high-speed DC chargers for EVs, and slower AC chargers aimed at plug-in hybrids.
Now that this first site is up and running, Charge co-founders and directors Joubert Roux and Andries Malherbe have assembled a team that plans to build 120 off-grid charging stations — one every 150km — in the next 12 months along South Africa’s national routes. The estimated cost is R2.3bn.
And that’s just for phase 1, which will include a network of stations along the nearly 2,000km N1 route between Cape Town and Musina. Phase 2 is arguably even more ambitious: it will see a “densification” of infrastructure along national roads, and the construction of EV stations along regional routes as well as in urban areas.
It’s the sort of infrastructure the country urgently needs, especially with EV sales expected to lift off from 2025, propelled by a coming wave of Chinese EVs costing less than R500,000. President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced a review of the EV tax regime, which has kept the price of electric cars artificially high and curtailed demand. Ramaphosa said the department of trade, industry & competition is also considering tax rebates or subsidies to encourage the adoption of EVs — a move that has been widely welcomed by the automotive industry.
Roux and Malherbe’s willingness to take on big risk and do something they say no-one else in the world is doing should be applauded. It’s the kind of innovation that could be exported not only to the rest of Africa, but to anywhere in the world where electricity grids are constrained.
Charge plans to build 120 off-grid charging stations — one every 150km — in the next 12 months along South Africa’s national routes
Not surprisingly, Chinese technology, supplied by Greencore Energy Solutions and Magic Power, forms the basis of the Charge platform. Indeed, with the Chinese EV industry increasingly leaving traditional automotive companies in the dust, expect to see a large portion of South Africa’s future automotive ecosystem — from the EVs themselves to the supporting infrastructure — built on Chinese tech.
Roux, who has a background in the motor trade and grid-scale wind and solar projects (marrying the two career focus areas), tells me that the company realised South Africa’s relatively weak electricity grid simply could not provide the energy needed along national roads to meet expected demand from EVs.
“People tend to underestimate what an enormous task it is to replace petrol and diesel as an energy source with electricity,” says Roux. But he says Charge has crunched the numbers and building a national network of off-grid charging stations, given the expected lift-off in EV sales from next year, makes financial sense.
The project has been self-funded so far, though Charge is in active talks with development finance institutions locally and abroad, and various green energy-focused funds worldwide to raise capital. These discussions are making good progress, says co-director Malherbe.
With Chinese EV manufacturers set to drive down the cost of electric cars in South Africa to the point where they are competitive with entry-level and midrange petrol-powered cars, and with Ramaphosa’s pledge to consider subsidies and tax rebates for EV buyers, industry experts say the country is on the cusp of an EV sales boom.
What the EV subsidies and rebates might look like, or even when they’ll be introduced, is unclear. But industry players have expressed optimism that it could trigger a rapid upswing in sales in a country where ICE vehicles still make up more than 99% of the new vehicle market. Roux and Malherbe’s timing looks impeccable.
*McLeod is editor of TechCentral
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.