Cross-Country Electric Vehicle Road Trips Showcase E-Mobility Readiness In South Africa – CleanTechnica

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South Africa’s Automotive Business Council, naamsa, recently held its 90th anniversary as part of the South African Automotive Week 2025, in Gqeberha, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. That meant, for this year’s event, an exciting opportunity for a road trip arose. The event became an exciting destination for electric vehicle road trippers from Johannesburg, Durban, and East London. The total distance of the electric vehicle road trip covered more than 4,000km with six 100% electric vehicles, and a few plug-in hybrids, for the 50+ participants. The electric vehicles used on the 2025 road trip included the BYD Sealion, Leapmotor B10, Mini Cooper SE, Volvo EX30 Cross Country, EX90, and XC40, showing the increasing variety of BEVs and PHEVs now available on the South African market. The Leapmotor vehicles are some of the more affordable EVs South Africans can look forward to and these should be officially launched in the near future. 

These road trips, along with the road-trippers, provide real world examples and testimonies for the electric vehicle transition in South Africa while showcasing the growth and innovation in national charging infrastructure. One of the first charging stops included a fully off-grid charging hub in Wolmaransstad, North West, that fast charged six vehicles simultaneously, powered by solar only. This site is powered by 280kWp of solar PV coupled with a 520kWh LFP battery pack.

“The automotive sector in South Africa is a vital component of South Africa’s manufacturing industry, and a significant contributor to employment and gross domestic product,” says Hiten Parmar, Executive Director of The Electric Mission. “The opportunity for growth in the sector is highlighted by the increase in new vehicle sales, which are up 24.3 per cent on the figures a year ago.”

“This second road trip in the lead up to SA Auto Week, themed as ‘Escaping the Noise’, proves that electric mobility in South Africa is not only possible today, but practical for local drivers and the locally available electric vehicle models” says Parmar. “There is a diverse selection of public charging infrastructure en route between the major centres, and it is growing across multiple operators and investors.”

The annual Global EV Outlook publication of the International Energy Agency profiles South Africa within the top 20 globally on the electric vehicle to charger ratio. This means EV drivers in South Africa can travel quite comfortably on all major highways without worrying about range anxiety. The Eastern Cape province, the foundation of South Africa’s automotive industry in 1924, leads the public charging infrastructure diversity in South Africa, with the most versatile network of public fast chargers providing seamless electric mobility from cities through to rural areas. “Urban travel is crucial to the electric mobility transition, but in South Africa linking urban and rural areas is of huge importance to connect communities separated by geography and employment opportunities,” says Parmar.

Ryan Jarret is another prominent ambassador for electric vehicle road trips in South Africa. Ryan recently drove through parts of the Eastern Cape and experienced this network first hand. Under the Explore South Africa, Electric Edition series, Ryan has been going on multiple long distance journeys across South Africa. The project’s goal is to showcase the beauty of South Africa through the lens of electric vehicles. South Africa is a country of endless roads, beauty, epic landscapes, and natural environments, as well as a mix of cultures and interests of those people and cultures. Ryan has already taken different electric vehicles on a number of road trips to prove that EVs are not only a great option to travel with, but also to prove that the charging infrastructure is already more than sufficient to facilitate these journeys in South Africa.

Along the way, the series seeks to show the electric vehicles in these locations to create some iconic and unique content around the journey and the vehicles. The wish is to also feature participants of the green transition along the way, whether it be charging stations, renewable energy projects or even community projects around the ideas of sustainability and green energy. The project wants to change the mindset about EVs and show that the journey may take a little longer but will cost less, have less impact, and give travelers the chance to slow down and take in the experience of the journey.

Here is a summary of what Ryan and Team plan to achieve with this project or series:

• To raise awareness around electric vehicles in South Africa.
• To showcase the practicality and benefits of electric vehicles in diverse terrains and locations and applications.
• To explore and highlight the beauty of South African landscapes.
• And finally, to feature local businesses, communities and projects.

Ryan has already done four long distance journeys and documented them, including a 3,000 km trip from Johannesburg to Knysna and back. This latest episode took a Volvo EX30 electric vehicle across 5 provinces, namely, Gauteng, the Free State, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and the Western Cape, showcasing the breath-taking landscape along the way. Ryan also went camping in an all-electric VW ID. BUZZ. 

Back to the SA Auto week. Some of the discussions at SA Auto week centered around the urgency for South Africa to realign with the needs of its primary export market for vehicles manufactured in South Africa. With Europe being South Africa’s primary market for exports of locally produced vehicles, South Africa’s automotive policy and supporting industry needs to critically align local vehicle and component production with Europe’s timeline of 2035 for the ban of internal combustion engine vehicle imports. During the recent State of the Union address, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen highlighted that ‘No Matter What, the Future Is Electric’. This is something we have highlighted quite often here on CleanTechnica.

Sales of electric vehicles in South Africa have been quite low compared to similar markets around the world. These road trips and similar initiatives will go a long way in raising awareness in South Africa, helping to improve EV sales and adoption.