Bright sparks

An ICT product and services provider aims to supply South Africa with more than 50 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations by November this year.

With a ZAR20 million investment and a deal with Jaguar Land Rover to supply locally manufactured stations to 32 car dealerships plus other locations, such as shopping centres, Alviva Holdings expects to deliver the 56 charging stations across the country by November this year, reports Business Tech.

EV charging stations in South Africa are currently limited. As of 2017, there were only 18 charging points in Gauteng, seven in the Western Cape, five in KwaZulu-Natal, two in the Eastern Cape, one each in Free State and Limpopo, and two each in Mpumalanga and the North West Province.

Data from the Lightstone analytics group shows that in early 2018, only 375 electric vehicles had been sold in South Africa, predominantly the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 and i8. Other manufacturers have since committed to playing a bigger role in this regard, with Jaguar Land Rover saying it is committed to an ‘electrified future’ with its all-electric Jaguar I-Pace and hybrid models arriving in South Africa in January 2019.

Alviva’s recently acquired Pretoria-based EV charging service equipment, infrastructure and management systems provider, Gridcars, will manufacture and supply the stations. According to Gridcars CEO Pierre Spies, the company will ‘sell the electricity but own the infrastructure’.