Gross sales of BEVs In South Africa For First 6 Months Of 2023 Have Already Matched Final Yr’s Whole

265,970 autos had been bought in South Africa from January to June this 12 months. Of those, 501 had been full battery-electric autos (BEVs). Which means simply 0.2% of all of the autos registered within the first 6 months of the 12 months in South Africa had been absolutely electrical. This will appear to be a small quantity, and it’s, however it’s fairly spectacular given the truth that solely about 7 OEMs presently promote their BEVs in South Africa and the vast majority of them are the extra premium fashions that promote for properly over R1 million ($56,750). South Africa additionally locations an exorbitant import obligation on BEVs, together with a “luxurious tax,” which implies BEVs pay a lot increased import duties than inner combustion engine autos.

In the entire of 2022, 502 BEVs had been registered in South Africa. Now that quantity has been matched in simply 6 months of this 12 months, that means we’re properly heading in the right direction to see the variety of BEVs registered in South Africa this 12 months to at the very least double.  Right here is the breakdown of the registrations by model:

Supply: naamsa/Lightstone Auto

Chart by RJK, Information from naamsa/Lightstone Auto

BMW continues to dominate the gross sales charts in South Africa with fashions just like the iX3 and the iX. MINI, additionally from the BMW Group, can also be persevering with its regular progress, in addition to Volvo with its XC40 and C40 BEVs. Mercedes and Audi spherical up the highest 5. The KIA and GWM fashions listed below are most likely demo fashions as they’re but to start out deliveries in South Africa. GWM’s Ora Good Cat has been confirmed to go on sale in South Africa later this 12 months, however no phrase but from KIA.

The leap in EV gross sales within the first six months of the 12 months, in a 12 months wherein electrical energy rationing has been the worst ever in South Africa’s historical past, reveals that load-shedding might be not the primary concern for EV patrons in South Africa. It’s nice to see EV gross sales rising huge time in South Africa, albeit from a really small base.

The truth is, AutoTrader South Africa’s Purchaser Survey confirmed that there have been different issues on potential EV patrons’ minds. 65.4% of the respondents say that the excessive preliminary value of buy is the primary concern. Period of charging, in addition to the perceived lack of public charging infrastructure, had been the opposite main issues. It was attention-grabbing to notice that though vary anxiousness was additional down the record with 20.9% saying it was one of many important issues, 37% stated they’d need an EV with a spread of 500 to 700 km per cost. A 700 km vary is Mercedes-Benz EQS territory and there aren’t many reasonably priced EVs with that type of vary.

It’s actually good to see EV gross sales in South Africa are on the up. May 2023 be the 12 months BEV gross sales breach the 1,000 mark? It appears to be like prefer it. South Africa actually wants extra BEV fashions to be made out there, particularly the extra reasonably priced ones. The excellent news is extra reasonably priced BEVs are on the way in which, such because the lately launched BYD Atto 3, which is able to begin from beneath R800,000.

I do not like paywalls. You do not like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Right here at CleanTechnica, we carried out a restricted paywall for some time, however it all the time felt fallacious — and it was all the time robust to determine what we must always put behind there. In idea, your most unique and greatest content material goes behind a paywall. However then fewer individuals learn it! We simply don’t love paywalls, and so we have determined to ditch ours.

Sadly, the media enterprise remains to be a tricky, cut-throat enterprise with tiny margins. It is a unending Olympic problem to remain above water and even maybe — gasp — develop. So …