While incentives for electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids appear to be on the horizon, Parliamentary Portfolio Committee members are showing a healthy degree of scepticism.
During a meeting on the draft White Paper on Green Hydrogen and the move towards manufacturing electric vehicles, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, Tsakani Shiviti, called on the government to pilot electric vehicles before forcing them on the public.
“This is how the real market disruption would occur. It is ideal that as a government we do not introduce all these innovations that we will not test ourselves.
“Government is big; we should start there and disrupt the market there. If we want society to trust our innovation, we should trust it ourselves,” Shiviti said during the briefing, which was held in conjunction with the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry, and Competition.
She said that while government welcomed the innovations, South Africa should not be pushed into accepting things that do not empower its people or resolve its challenges.
“The move from coal should be calculated and phased in. Africa as a continent is responsible for only about 4% of carbon emissions.
“So, the urge to move with speed on greener energy and technologies should be understood against that background,” Shiviti added.
“We are as sympathetic as anyone else to the climate change-exacerbating factors, but we all should exercise lateral thinking on how to mitigate or adapt, and not being dictated to by the West.”
However, experts say shifting to electric cars without moving to cleaner power sources could eliminate or significantly delay any environmental benefits.
A Reuters study in the US showed that a Tesla Model 3 electric sedan would need to drive for 126,000km to achieve “eco parity” with a petrol-powered equivalent if it were only plugged into a coal-powered electricity grid.
ALSO READ: SA’s electric car push will make no sense unless the power sources are cleaner
A move to electric vehicles by the government would also be an expensive one, with family-sized electric vehicles currently starting at over R760,000 in South Africa.
During the same EV briefing held this week, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee Trade, Industry and Competition, Mzwandile Masina, also questioned the move toward New Energy Vehicles as well as the proposed hydrogen solutions.
“Transitioning from combustion engines must benefit the country and we must not just move for the sake of doing it. Can we say with certainty that this is a strategic move that must be done?” Masina asked.
He further said that abandoning combustion engines, as well as coal power, could also leave many South Africans destitute and without jobs.
“It is just impossible for us to just move to greener energies. Our country is endowed with massive deposits of coal and the reality is that a country like China is building over 100 coal power plants,” Masina added.
He said any energy transitions would need to be phased in, in such a way as to not disrupt the lives of poor South Africans.
“South Africa cannot just be an assembly point of these technologies, or even a spectator in the bigger debate around the future of energy generation.
“We need to re-skill the labour force in the coal sector. We should be able to speak for petrol attendants; where will they end up when the move to green hydrogen finally occurs?,” the Chairperson asked.
IOL