OMAI’s joint CEO Paul Boynton was recently interviewed by Fifi Peters of SAfm, where he discussed his view that South Africa should be focused on meeting the demand for electric vehicles (EV) in the UK and Europe. Currently, these markets account for 60%+ of total South African vehicle exports, thanks to the favourable trade agreements between the two regions.

This year, the European Union (EU) and the UK have announced a proposal to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines by 2030- 2035, which is expected to spur on demand for electric vehicles (EV).

According to Boynton, the recent announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa to allow companies to generate their own power will position South Africa to capitalise on this trend. “The ability for businesses now to embark on sort of embedded power generation, where they can build renewable power or power facilities up to a hundred megawatts is great.

“I predict that the carbon footprint implicit in the production of that car is going to become an issue for governments in Europe and potentially certainly for consumers in Europe.

“But we do need to move because we’re behind the curve a bit in a sense with our own market. Countries have all developed electric vehicles in their home markets by providing tax incentives to get the industry going in respect of emissions. So I think that’s something government here needs to consider as well,” said Boynton.

Listen to the full Moneyweb SAfm interview here: https://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-radio/100mw-threshold-increase-key-to-sas-electric-vehicle-supply-chain-hopes/