It’s no secret that it’s an expensive time to be living in South Africa, as the cost of food and other essential items continues to escalate at an alarming rate.
A significant factor in the sky-high cost of living at the moment is the price of fuel, which has soared over the past year owing to fluctuations in the international oil supply, the US dollar/rand exchange rate, and local changes to the taxes placed on fuel.
The most recent update saw the inland price of petrol breach the R23 per litre mark for the first time this year in May, and prices are expected to continue on an upward trend for the rest of 2023.
Given how important it is to understand the cost of transport in our current environment, TopAuto calculated how much it would cost to make the journey from Johannesburg to Cape Town at the current fuel and toll prices.
Joburg to Cape Town
Using Sandton as our starting point, the journey to Cape Town’s city centre along the N1 highway is expected to take roughly 14 to 15 hours – stretched out over the course of 1,413km.
We used the new Toyota Urban Cruiser as a benchmark to calculate fuel consumption, as the previous model was one of the country’s top-selling cars, and it should provide a good representation of a typical family car.
Regardless of the transmission selected, the Toyota has a listed fuel usage of 6.1l/100km, which means we should use approximately 86.2l litres of petrol on our journey.
That translates to a total fuel cost of R1,983.46, spread out over at least two stops at service stations thanks to the Cruiser’s 45-litre tank.
Petrol is not the only travel fee that needs to be accounted for though, as there are a total of four toll gates along the N1 that you will need to pay over the course of the trip.
This includes the Grasmere toll in Gauteng, the Vaal and Verkeerdevlei gate in the Free State, and the Huguenot tunnel in the Western Cape.
The cost of each of these toll booths is as follows:
- Grasmere –R24.00
- Vaal – R79.50
- Verkeerdevlei – R68.50
- Huguenot – R47.50
The combined toll cost of the journey to Cape Town will therefore come to R219.50.
This means that anyone planning to travel between South Africa’s two biggest cities in a car averaging around 6.0l/100km will need to fork out a grand total of R2,202.96, or up to R4,405,92 for a return trip.
Keyword: How much it costs to drive from Johannesburg to Cape Town