Drive past the Volkswagen plant in Kariega (formerly Uitenhage) in the Eastern Cape, and you will see this sign in bold letters: “The future is electric.”In June 2021, Volkswagen Germany announced that it would stop selling vehicles powered by internal combustion engines in Europe by 2035.However, there is some breathing space for the South African plant as Klaus Zellmer, Volkswagen board member for sales, is quoted as saying the switch will take longer in the African, American and Chinese markets.In contrast, Mercedes Benz, which has a plant in East London, has announced that from 2025 all new vehicle platforms will be only electric. CEO Ola Källenius announced in October 2021 that Mercedes would switch to battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) except in markets where conditions, such as a lack of chargers, would make that difficult.The company has started assembling a plug-in hybrid at the Eastern Cape plant.There are mixed messages coming from the other major original equipment manufacturers in South Africa.BMW, which assembles the X3 in the country, wants half its global sales to be electric by 2030. Ford is dividing its auto business into two separate units: Ford Blue, for traditional petrol and diesel-powered vehicles; and Ford Model E, for new electric models. In South Africa, it assembles the Ford Ranger and Mazda BT-50 bakkies.Toyota is hedging its bets. While increasing investments in all-electric vehicles, the company argues that not all areas of the world will adopt EVs at the same pace due to the high cost of the vehicles as well as a lack of infrastructure. It continues to work on internal combustion engines. Isuzu is working on electric commercial vehicles both in South Africa and in partnership with Hino at an international level.How many of these plans include continuing production in South Africa? This remains to be seen.In April 2022, Mike Whitfield, president of the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers, who also heads up Nissan Motor Company Africa, sounded this warning: “A very large percentage of our exports as an industry go to Europe, and while Europe is moving aggressively to electric, we are not. We are going to progressively lose our potential markets.”He is supported by the 2022 edition of an annual report released by non-profit organisation GreenCape – titled Electric Vehicles Market Intelligence Report –which states: “South Africa (SA) has an early stage policy landscape, but does not have subsidies or incentives to accelerate the development of the EV market. SA has thus not yet joined the ranks of those countries experiencing a steep rise in EV uptake and the development of the ecosystem and value chain around EVs.”According to the report, the immediate opportunity for the country lies in the manufacture of electric buses for public transport. While the bureaucrats work through the process of developing policies, the British government has stepped in with a R30 million grant to upskill engineering students ahead of any introduction of EV manufacturing in South Africa.Yakh’iFuture (meaning “build your future”) is an interactive online learning platform aimed at preparing South African engineering students to work in the automotive components manufacturing industry.
