Brace for more electric vehicles

It takes a brave person – in the midst of chaos at our national power supplier, Eskom – to predict that most new cars we will be able to buy in South Africa by 2030 will be electric.

Janico Dannhauser, product and pricing manager for Jaguar Land Rover SA, says just that in an opinion piece written for us today. Given that his group intends to phase out internal combustion engines by
2025, it is understandable that Dannhauser is an electric evangelist.

There are plenty of things which will have to be in place in the next eight and a half years for his prediction to become a reality – not least of which is a reliable national power supply. Also of concern is the virtually nonexistent charging network in this country.

That means many journeys will be beyond the range of cars using the current technology. Yet, Dannhauser makes a telling point when he says that we source our cars – even those we assemble here – from countries where the move to electric vehicles is well advanced.

Although there will be petrol and diesel vehicles on our roads for years, electric ones will slowly replace
them. Change is inevitable, so perhaps we should go with the flow.