Moving the City of Tshwane towards zero emissions

Electric vehicles (EVs) can reduce congestion and air pollution in South Africa’s capital city. To make that happen, though, EVs need to be more affordable and accessible.

By Ivan Reutener

Every morning, around 200 000 people living in Pretoria wake up, get dressed, and drive to work alone1. On average, they’ll spend about an hour in traffic2, travelling at a snail’s pace of around 26 km/h3. Collectively, these 200 000 slow-moving single-occupant vehicles – all of them internal combustion engines (ICEs) – emit 790 tonnes of CO emissions 2 one way4. Then, when it’s home time, they do it all over again.

To offset the environmental impact, we’d need to plant 1 580 trees around the city – every day. And this doesn’t take into account the tailpipe emissions from the other 660 000 registered ICE vehicles in the city5 .

As the capital of South Africa, Pretoria is home to various foreign embassies, high commissions, consulates, and some 1.4 million households. It’s unlikely that we’ll convince people to travel less, but if there were a mass shift to EVs, the public and private sectors could work together to make it easier to move around the city, while radically reducing tailpipe emissions, enhancing quality of life, and boosting the economy. However, there are a few policy, technology, and business obstacles that South Africa would first need to overcome in the shift to smart mobility.

Ivan Reutener, Pr Tech Eng, leading professional: Smart Mobility, Royal HaskoningDHV

Vehicle-to-vehicle connections will facilitate communication between autonomous vehicles and synchronise travel patterns so that traffic signals – and traffic as we know it today – will be obsolete

The beginning of the end of traffic

Granted, replacing ICE vehicles with EVs won’t make a difference to congestion and travel time during peak periods. However, it’s a significant step towards fully autonomous transport, when EVs will be easily accessible and affordable to all through digital mobility solutions. This would encourage ride-sharing and reduce the number of single-occupant vehicles – and therefore congestion – on the roads.

Encouraging residents to walk and cycle more, by allocating bigger public spaces to pedestrians in car-free areas and providing green corridors with dedicated walkways and cycling infrastructure is another way to reduce congestion.

Fast-track climate targets

It’s not just commuters that benefit in an EV-friendly city. As signatory to the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group6, the City of Tshwane has taken the pledge to collaborate, share knowledge and drive meaningful, measurable and sustainable action on climate change.

The stated goal in the City’s Climate Response Strategy7 is to reduce emissions and improve air quality. An EV adoption strategy that starts with converting the City’s fleet to EVs and eventually rolls out to include public transport and taxis will enable the City to meet targets to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Another focus area should be on making EVs more affordable to the general public through incentives, subsidies and reduced import tax.

Rich man’s toy

The general public is more likely to choose an EV as their next vehicle if there were compelling incentives to do so – and if they were more affordable. However, this is not the case in South Africa.

Electric vehicles are generally regarded as ‘rich men’s toys’ – and for good reason. Unlike

Electric vehicle public transport will be conveniently and affordably accessed via mobile devices in an autonomous future

other governments around the world, South Africa does not offer any incentives to the public to purchase an EV. While some countries offer rebates to reduce the price of EVs, South Africa’s policies increase the price through exorbitant import duties, making them unaffordable for the average person.

To encourage EV adoption in South Africa, the government may need to reconsider its high import tax structure. Tax on an imported ICE vehicle is currently levied at 18%. For an EV, it’s 25% plus an additional 15% luxury tax. Let’s compare that to other countries: • China and Germany offer subsidies of between US$2 500 and $10 800 (between

R35 000 and R152 000) on EVs8 . • The US is ramping up to increase industry incentives, with the Biden administration announcing plans to install 500 000 public charging stations by 2030. • The UK’s Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG) offers 25% off a new electric car’s list price up to £5 000 (R99 500). Making EVs more affordable is one way to incentivise EV purchases in South Africa. Others include: • allowing EVs to use HOV lanes to reduce congestion • offering free parking • exempting EVs from city emissions and congestion charges • reduced or zero road and company car tax • expanding the public charging station network. Other ways to increase affordability and accessibility would be to convert the public transport fleet into EVs, to incentivise the taxi industry to convert9, and to establish and encourage electric car-sharing schemes. This approach also enables low-income earners to enjoy the benefits of EVs, which can be conveniently and affordable accessed via their mobile devices in an autonomous transport future.

EVs for everyone

The private sector has a significant role to play in ensuring successful autonomous transport, the benefits of which include zero or close-to-zero emissions, no congestion, and potentially no accidents.

Communication networks, smart mobility solutions, and reliable connectivity form the backbone of an efficient autonomous transport network. Vehicle-to-vehicle connections will facilitate communication between autonomous vehicles and synchronise travel patterns so that traffic signals – and traffic as we know it today – will be obsolete.

From a logistics and fleet management perspective, this advanced IoT-enabled network can help to optimise costs and maximise asset utilisation in ride-sharing fleets. We’ve estimated that, taking into account the kilometre range of the EVs, ridesharing businesses can expect to see a return on investment within four to seven years. After that, the entire system becomes more cost-effective than fuel fleets, with the added benefit of zero emissions.

References:

1 Gauteng Province Household Travel Survey Report 2019/20 – May 2020 2 Technical Paper, ‘Comparison of travel time between private car and public transport in Cape Town’, Hitge G, Vanderschuren M 3 Table 28 4 White Paper, South Africa’s New Passenger Vehicle CO Emission Standards, 20182 5 Gauteng Province Household Travel Survey Report 2019/20 – May 2020 6 http://www.tshwane.gov.za/sites/Council/Ofiice-Of-The-Executive-Mayor/Climate%20Action/000-COT-Climate-Response-Strategy.pdf 7 http://www.tshwane.gov.za/sites/Council/Ofiice-Of-The-Executive-Mayor/Climate%20Action/000-COT-Climate-Response-Strategy.pdf 8 https://www.visualcapitalist.com/europe-leads-in-ev-sales-but-for-how-long 9 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/electric-minibus-taxis-can-help-sas-poor-heres-how-gideon-treurnich