South Africa will need to drastically overhaul its current transport infrastructure if it hopes to remain competitive in the global economy as the world makes the transition to electric vehicles (EV).
This is according to various players across the country’s automotive sector, who warned that South Africa is at risk of being left behind if measures are not taken to keep up to date with market trends.
Why electrification is important in South Africa
The local motor industry contributes 4.3% to the GDP and accounts for nearly a fifth of all manufacturing in the country, and many of the vehicles produced go on to be sold in more than 150 overseas markets.
In 2021, vehicle exports totalled nearly half-a-million units and brought R207 billion into the economy, and a major concern within the industry is that this source of revenue and employment could dry up.
Many of the country’s top export markets, such as Europe, are transitioning to EVs and are set to ban the sale of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles within the next decade, which means that many of South Africa’s biggest export vehicles could lose access to key markets.
One such example is the VW Polo, which is produced at the Kariega Plant in the Eastern Cape and is chiefly exported to the UK – a country that is planning to ban ICE cars from 2030.
Similarly, this raises the issue that the rest of the world will soon be using electric transport when South Africa’s infrastructure may be ill-equipped to support it, which could vastly limit the types of vehicles that are imported when other countries are no longer producing combustion engines.
In order to prevent this situation, where the country’s automotive scene is left behind in the global shift to EVs, leading figures from local carmakers such as Toyota and Ford have expressed the need to turn South Africa into a hub for the production and export of new energy vehicles (NEVs).
What must be done
The main goal for South Africa’s various original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is to shift transport operations from the roads to the rail network, for a number of reasons.
The majority of imports and exports are handled through the ports in Durban, while most manufacturing takes place in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, and the result is that a few key corridor routes, such as the N3 highway between Durban and Johannesburg, are inundated with trucks transporting vast quantities of materials and finished goods.
This is highly inefficient both in terms of time and operating costs, owing to how trucks are capable of transporting far fewer goods than trains, and it has a negative impact on the road network as a whole with worse traffic on already busy routes.
It also causes long-term damage to the road itself as a result of heavy vehicles traversing up and down on a daily basis, contributing to the alarmingly high cost of reparations.
Ford in particular has expressed that it wants to shift the majority of its traffic moving between its Silverton Plant in Pretoria and Durban harbour to railways with an end goal of seven trains per day, instead of the four it is currently using.
Part of this motivation is to keep up with production in other countries such as Thailand, where the Everest is made, which “far exceeds” South Africa’s current manufacturing capacity, said Ford.
Likewise, Durban’s ports are capable of moving roughly 18 containers per hour, which is half the rate of comparable ports in Europe.
To alleviate this, the industry is planning to expand more into the Eastern Cape to ease the pressure on Durban and KZN as a whole.
As for the EVs themselves, new charging infrastructure must be installed and new facilities will be needed to accommodate the production of NEVs, which the country is in a prime position to do.
South Africa has access to the majority of materials needed to produce the batteries used in electric cars, and any remaining materials can be sourced from neighboring markets in countries like Namibia and Zambia.
It has an opportunity to become a major producer and exporter of green hydrogen, too, and potential sites have already been scouted in places like Cape Town, East London, Gqeberha, and Durban.
The biggest challenges
The biggest hurdles to the automotive sector’s development are poor infrastructure, crime, and load shedding.
South Africa’s road network is rapidly deteriorating and struggling to keep up with the industry’s needs, and previous attempts to shift to trains have met their own problems, including an incident where new rail cars were commissioned, only to find that they did not fit the train tracks.
Crime is another major issue, with cable theft and sabotage disrupting operations for nearly every company involved in the supply chain.
Over 4,000 incidents of cable theft were reported along the N3 last year alone, said a representative from the auto sector.
Load shedding has been another considerable disruption to the manufacturing industry, especially this past year, as South Africa has been experiencing its worst load-shedding streak to date.
On a more positive note, however, electric charging infrastructure is developing at a good pace and is keeping up with the rate at which EVs are being purchased – a feat that several countries in Europe are struggling to achieve.
Keyword: How South Africa’s infrastructure needs to change for electric cars