One of the big names in our country’s minibus taxi industry, SA Taxi, says it is planning to trial electric taxis. But don’t expect that to happen in a big hurry.
The CEO of Transaction Capital, the parent company to SA Taxi, Terry Kier, said a shift towards the use of electric taxis would be a “medium- to long-term project,” according to a TechCentral report.
You can’t just stick a battery in a taxi and call it a day
But, again, that’s not going to happen quickly. That’s partly due to the fact that it just doesn’t make economic sense to switch right away. Kier says as much.
“Firstly, the tax regime and incentives for electric vehicles are not yet conducive for import; an electric taxi will cost around double that of a locally manufactured diesel minibus taxi as things stand,” Kier details, according to TechCentral.
But that isn’t the only reason that EVs won’t be seen on our roads en masse anytime soon. There’s also the required infrastructure to consider. EVs are generally a lot heavier than regular cars. That BMW iX that we recently reviewed, for example. It’s roughly the same size as a Toyota Fortuner but weighs roughly 400kgs more.
Read more: The silent and self-healing: BMW iX review
Our roads might need some upgrades, considering how many taxis they carry. Well, they need upgrades anyway to make them less holey, but you get the idea.
Then there’s also the downtime that charging will bring. Recharging an EV takes significantly longer than refuelling its fossil-fuel driven counterpart, depending on the charger. Will drivers rotate vehicles as the others charge up? With the number of kilometres they drive every day, they might need a fleet each.
Do you think our country is ready for EVs?
What happens when there’s load shedding? What about the loss of income from fuel tax, of which the taxi industry is a massive contributor? That’s a consideration for EVs in South Africa in general.
It appears that Kier is aware of these considerations. “I am not suggesting that electric taxis do not have a place in our longer-term strategy, but there are many stakeholders that must be included, and constraints considered and planned for, to successfully replace the fleet.”
So, while it seems every brand is pushing for wider EV adoption in all countries, there are many aspects to consider before our country is ready to embrace it. Our poor planet might not have that much time though.
Source: TechCentral