Volvo SA is enticing more people to make the jump to electric vehicles with a new promotion, giving new buyers of their electric offerings a public charging voucher valid for two years, Vodacom data for three years, and a GridCars wallbox AC charger for their home.
Volvo takes charge for two years
In a country where access to energy is precarious, it’s no wonder that EV adoption seems relatively slow. A perceived lack of public charging infrastructure is often quoted as one of the biggest (but certainly not the only) hurdles for new buyers. Volvo aims to combat this by offering new customers a charging voucher valued at R12,000 for use at public chargers. It will be linked to the new customer’s GridCars charging card and will be valid for two years.
The Chinese-owned Swedish car manufacturer is also throwing in a free GridCars wallbox AC charger (and installation thereof). If you’ve ever tried to charge an EV from a wall socket, you’ll know it’s only worth it if a) you have no other option, and b) you can afford to wait the eight to twelve hours it will take. The AC charger from GridCars should cut down that time significantly. The R7,500 installation voucher also doesn’t hurt.
To sweeten the deal even further, Volvo is adding 10GB of Vodacom data every month for 36 months. This should come in handy in a pinch, but it should be noted that the car company is doing this more so because they want users to make full use of their cars’ suite of Google apps and services and get over-the-air updates when they are available.
As far as the current selection of Volvo EVs goes, the list of options includes the EX30, the XC40 Recharge, the C40 Recharge. The flagship EX90 seven-seater launches locally soon this year.