Astronomical duties hold back electric vehicle uptake

Electric vehicles should be considered a viable option for South Africa – particularly for shortdistance deliveries and the last mile. That’s the view of Ben Pullen, co-founder and managing director of Generation.e, who told delegates at the monthly Transport Forum in Cape Town recently that it was essential to build a strategy to engage business and government to adopt smarter mobility solutions. “We are not lacking in policy, technology or solutions. The big challenge lies in bringing all the stakeholders on board.” He said one of the key issues that needed to be addressed was the high

import costs and luxury tax currently being levied on electric vehicles. “The import duty and the luxury tax amounts to 43% on a vehicle that is electric,” he said. “The luxury tax is questionable.

How can you call clean air a luxury? Johannesburg alone is the 13th worst city for air pollution in the world.” He said any initiative to address clean air and a reduction in carbon emissions should

be encouraged and not taxed. Pullen said arguments that electric vehicles in the South African context were not cleaner as they were being charged with electricity generated by coal-fired power stations were also not valid. “Research indicates that electric vehicles charged with coal-powered electricity have 37% less carbon emissions than vehicles using diesel or petrol. If that power is changed to renewable then it moves to 67% less.” He said solutions to bring about smarter mobility were therefore imperative if South Africa wanted to reach its targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.