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Figure 12 Renewable Energy Capacity in South Africa

Source: IRENA 2016

Apart from the carbon intensity of our current national electricity grid, there are also
concerns around the reliability of the electricity supply. In response to this Eskom has
invested in a number of BMW i3s in an attempt to better understand the impact of EVs
on the national grid. The cars are being driven by a task team with mobile charging
stations as they try to map out how they will need to support the growing EV market.
This support will be in the form of setting specialised EV tariffs and extending electricity
supply to charging stations. Perhaps it will also speed up the implementation of a smart-
grid in South Africa.
Investment in smart metres is already underway in a number of municipalities in
the Western Cape. Whilst these will not update on real time, they will have different
tariffs specified at different times of the day, allowing consumers and Eskom to better
manage the demand for electricity and the prices paid. It will also allow households
to become producers of their own electricity, fostering decentralised electricity supply.
This consumption smoothing effect combined with the rapidly increasing investment in
utility scale renewable energy stands the country in good stead to be able to support
a growing number of EV users.

PERCEIVED PERFORMANCE
The average citizen knows very little about electric vehicles, or if they do, many still
picture the failed attempts in the twentieth century. The perception is that EVs are
slower than, and not as powerful as, their petrol counterpart. As we have seen in the
Tesla case study, this is simply not the case. It is therefore important that there are public
awareness campaigns to improve perceptions around the performance concerns of
those who prefer conventional vehicles.

Uber is currently running a promotion called UberGreen in the city of Cape Town, in
which users may ride in a BMW i3 for the same price as the UberX. This may contribute
positively to people’s awareness of EVs, whilst also serving as a valuable source of data
on the ease of use, range and reliability of the vehicles.

34 QUARTERLY ECONOMIC BULLETIN 2016