South Africa will create incentives for the local production of electronic vehicles, aka ‘green cars’, to reduce the country’s carbon footprint and creating jobs.
And vehicle manufacturers in South Africa have welcomed the launch of the Electronic Vehicle Industry Road Map, which aims to introduce electric vehicles into the South African market.
“It’s a tremendous initiative and a good start to working with all stakeholders. We will fully support it,” Nissan SA CEO Mike Whitfield said on Thursday.
Toyota SA CEO Johan van Zyl and BMW CEO Bodo Donauer congratulated the initiative. “This is not a short term issue; it’s a long term plan. It is a process whereby we have to work together to first of all, establish the infrastructure.”
Speaking at the launch of the Electric Vehicle Industry Roadmap today, 2 May 2013, Trade and Industry Minister (DTI), Rob Davies, said the department is proposing incentives for vehicle manufactures to produce electric vehicles. The package to encourage and support manufacturers will be incorporated within the Automotive Production Development Programme (APDP).
The APDP replaced the Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP), which was in existence since 1995. It came to an end in January.
The proposal is that the DTI will create incentives for the automotive sector to manufacture electric vehicles in South Africa by introducing a highly generous quota for manufacturing under the APDP to benefit from the incentive scheme. To qualify electric vehicle manufacturers must produce 5000 of the minimum volume.
“We have increased the percentage to 35% cash back in investment [over a three year period] which we propose,” Davies said.
Under the programme, the incentive for localisation is 30% on cash back and manufacturers are required to manufacture 50 000 vehicles.
The APDP’s objective is to raise the volume of cars manufactured in South Africa to 1.2 million annually by 2020 as well as to diversify the component chain.
Van Zyl also said: “From the motor industry side, the technology has already been developed and is available whether it’s electric or hybrids. In the future, [most] vehicles will use alternative technology.
“This is the right time to start. If we don’t start sometime, we will be left behind,” said Van Zyl, adding that the country needed to ensure a greener environment in future.
Incentives for consumers who buy the electric vehicles, of which none are currently being manufactured in the country, are still being considered.
Davies said the public had not warmed much to the idea of electric vehicles yet, adding that government would consider purchasing these vehicles if they are manufactured locally.
Davies also said there was an overwhelming case for the transport industry to reduce its carbon footprint. “We are well aware that as development takes place, transportation demand will grow. What is absolutely evident is that vehicle manufacturing must adopt new technology (such as electric vehicles) for lesser emissions,” said Davies.
South Africa is the 13th largest global emitter of CO2 and Davies said South Africa should not be “left behind” in greening technologies.
In 2010, the DTI in conjunction with the CSIR, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) established an Electric Vehicle (EV) task team responsible for developing the architecture of the EV industry road map to create a conducive industry in the country. In 2012, the minister approved the road map proposed for EVs and the department is calling for public participation to align the proposal with broader government policy and plans.
Once manufactured the vehicles will not draw power from the Eskom grid. Davies emphasised that the road map stretches over a long term trajectory.
The move is part of government’s efforts to ensure that South Africa practically contributes to the reduction of environmentally harmful gases, by promoting the use of cleaner sources of fuel by the automotive industry.
In February, Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa introduced the department’s zero emission electric vehicles, also referred to as the green cars. At the launch today Molewa said since the introduction in February, three charging points that run on solar power for EVs had been established in the Gauteng province as part of the pilot project.
The department aims to have 50 charging points in and around the province in the future. The vehicles, said Molewa, were not any different to ordinary vehicles.
In June, the department will engage industry stakeholders (including NAAMSA and NUM among others) on the map and public comments into the matter will be collected.
In September, the map will be taken to Cabinet.
Davies said that it was at an early stage to say how much these vehicles would cost as the technology was still at an early stage. However, EVs are projected to cost more than normal vehicles but that the running costs would be lower over time.
News courtesy of SAnews.gov.za
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