Motorburn | You can now rent BMW i3 from Europcar in Cape Town

Motorburn | You can now rent BMW i3 from Europcar in Cape Town
You can now rent BMW i3 from Europcar in Cape Town. Article from 19th December 2016 written by Hadlee Simons.

“We have introduced the fully-electric, 0% emissions BMW i3 to our fleet, with sustainability in mind and looking at future trends in mobility. The BMW i3 is a unique, cost effective and innovative vehicle option for our customers,” said Jody Naidoo, Divisional Fleet Procurement Executive for Europcar, in a BMW SA press statement. 

This is a great idea. Not only allowing visitors to enjoy driving about Cape Town in a clean and quiet manner, it's also possibly giving people their first taste of electromobility. It's a fairly inexpensive method to try out an electric car for a day or two, to see perhaps if it fits your motoring needs.

I'm thinking right now if I needed to rent a car and there was an electric option, I would take it. As long as it wasn't priced ridiculously. It would allow me to experience an electric car which otherwise is unlikely to happen until I'm ready to replace my present ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle, which is probably still several years off.

Celebrating 50,000kM in our all electric car!

Celebrating 50,000kM in our all electric car! Capetonian Mark Becker takes us for a ride in his Nissan Leaf.

Cape Town to use electric bicycles to fight crime

Cape Town to use electric bicycles to fight crime

The City of Cape Town appears to be leading the way when it comes to electromobility in South Africa. Not only are they adding electric busses to their MyCiti fleet, they are also using electric bikes to fight crime around Table Mountain and other parts of the city, reports My Broadband

The electric bikes can reach up to 70kmh and have a range of up to 120km, the battery takes 80 minutes to fully recharge.

Robbie Robberts, Director of Law Enforcement in the City of Cape Town, told Cape Talk that the area around Table Mountain is suffering from criminal activities. It is a massive area to patrol, and to make it easier the City of Cape Town is using e-bikes to assist law enforcement. “The bicycles are a mixture between a motorcycle and a normal bicycle,” said Robberts. He said it is a cost-effective way for the city to increase its patrolling capabilities, and to fight crime around Cape Town.

This sounds like a great idea. Electric bikes are smaller, lighter and cheaper to run than motorcycles. If they're using them off-road, which it appears like they are, then it should be quite easy to pick it up and lift it over obstacles. Also because it's electric it will be almost silent so their is less chance it will alert the crooks before the police get close enough to apprehend them. Police can also use them to patrol crowded areas without assaulting pedestrians with noise and air pollution.

South Africa: 'No Time for Trial and Error' As Cape Town's Mayor Leads Green Push

South Africa: 'No Time for Trial and Error' As Cape Town's Mayor Leads Green Push
In January I wrote about Cape Town acquiring ten electric buses that are due to go into service in the city later this year. This will be the first electric bus service in South Africa.

Not only is the city going to be using emission free public transport, they are also implementing many other clean energy projects.

Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille emphasizes some of the advantages of the forthcoming electric bus service in the city.

"They're going to save us a lot of money. Our maintenance budget will be cut by 60 percent, as they're very easy to maintain. And to recharge the batteries we're also going to use solar energy."

As with all electric vehicles, not only are they cheaper to power than an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle, they require much less maintenance as there are far less moving parts and they require no change of oil or filters like an ICE vehicle. Even if they were to use electricity off the grid they'd be spending a lot less than they presently do on diesel, but if they are directly using solar energy to charge the batteries than that's even better. Everyone who uses public transport would like it to be cheaper and this is a step in the right direction of making that a reality.

BMW SA rolls out electric charging stations in Cape Town

BMW SA rolls out electric charging stations in Cape Town
Article written by Thandi Skade  for DestinyMan.com reports that BMW South Africa have unveiled a new charging station at the Constantia Village shopping centre in Cape Town.

Expanding on the three charging stations that are operational at the V&A Waterfront, the Constantia charging station is fast and secure, with a Type 2 connection enabled to charge a BMW i3, i8 as well as the Nissan Leaf. 

Despite the absence of any momentum from the government regarding electric vehicles in this country, it's good to see BMW and Nissan making an effort to provide charging infrastructure for their customers. The more charging points there are the more potential EV purchasers will be tempted into buying an electric car.

BMW SA CEO Tim Abbott said the stations had been built with the future in mind and with the ability to cater for prospective electric vehicles......Abbott said BMW and Nissan SA MD Mike Whitfield had lobbied government to approve tax incentives for electric car manufacturers. While government officials, including Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, have indicated their support for electric cars in principle, the support has not translated into action. Car manufacturers who import electric cars into the country pay a 25% tax levy compared to gas-guzzling cars, which are taxed 18%.

I wrote about the lack of any government incentives for electric vehicles in South Africa, yesterday. Once again Nissan and BMW are commendably leading the way and putting the case for electric cars. With the fact that electric vehicles are at the present time still more expensive than a petrol or diesel equivalent, it doesn't help that they're taxed more than internal combustion engine vehicles. This maybe explains why other manufacturers are hesitant to bring their electrically powered offerings into the country. Seeing as EV sales at the moment are quite slow in SA, there wouldn't be much lost in tax revenue if the tax levy on EV's was dropped totally, at least for a while. Indeed, it appears Tim Abbott shares the same sentiments.

Abbott has suggested that the government consider kick-starting public interest in electric cars by scrapping tax for the first year to make the electric vehicle market more competitive. 

I'm not sure what he means by the first year. I don't think that's a long enough period to get things really going. Maybe the tax could be dropped totally for three years and then slowly increased at 3% a year for the next six years until it's back up to the same level as gas powered vehicles. Another incentive could be to have a moratorium on toll fees for electric vehicles for five years. I'll think up some more possible incentives for a future article.

Cape Town to acquire ten electric buses in R126m deal

Cape Town to acquire ten electric buses in R126m deal
Another article about the electric buses the city of Cape Town are buying, a bit more in depth this time, from Creamer Media Engineering News. 

It appears to be a well thought out purchase, not only providing Cape Town with cleaner and greener public transport but also providing new jobs, assembling and maintaining the buses and associated infrastructure as well as many other benefits detailed in the article.

“The operational cost of electric buses is reported to be significantly lower – not only in terms of fuel, but also in relation to maintenance, as there are fewer engine parts to service.....

City of CT to launch electric-powered bus pilot project

City of CT to launch electric-powered bus pilot project
Article from EWN about Cape Town's pilot project to try out electric buses in the city. This is really great news and hopefully other municipalities will follow Cape Towns lead.

I've actually been thinking that electric minibus taxis could also be a possibility.  If they had a range of 300km I'm sure it would be sufficient to cope with the morning rush hour and then during the quiet times during the day they could charge their batteries while waiting at the taxi ranks, in preparation for the evening rush hour. I'm sure taxi owners would be happy for the saving in fuel costs as that has to be the biggest expense in running a taxi. It wouldn't be difficult to install charging points at taxi ranks.

Very soon, a Cape Town bus ride will be powered by electricity as the city looks.......