SA's Largest EV Charging Station Companies
Oct 17, 2023 7:01 am
These Are South Africa’s Largest EV Charging Station Companies
3 min read
With total NEV (New Energy Vehicles) sales increasing by 81% from 2021 to 2022 and forecasted to increase even more in 2023, it is inevitable that attention will be turned not only to the EV car brands but also to the car charging station providers.
Some of the EV charging stations are provided by car brands that manufacture EVs while most others are erected by independent companies. Here is a little information on every established EV charging station provider in SA.
Audi
Audi has been a well-established brand in South Africa since the late 1960s. It launched its first EV range in South Africa in 2022. When Audi launched the e-tron range, they knew that the country lacked existing EV charging infrastructure. It immediately started erecting charging stations in partnership with EV charging manufacturer, Rubicon, around the country and now has over 127 charging stations in SA. Audi has invested over R45 million in charging infrastructure and plans to invest even more.
BMW & Nissan
BMW launched their first EVs in South Africa in 2015 with the i8 and i3. The company unveiled its first EV charging stations for South Africa in the same year. Nissan brought an EV to South Africa for the first time in 2013. The Nissan Leaf was not well received but that didn’t stop Nissan South Africa from signing a Memorandum of Understanding with BMW South Africa in May 2015 to jointly roll out EV charging stations under the brand name ChargeNow. Seeing as MINI is under the BMW brand, their EVs can also be charged at ChargeNow stations.
Jaguar
Jaguar, under the Jaguar Land Rover company, brought its first EV, the I-Pace, to South Africa in 2019. However, the company partnered with GridCars to erect 82 EV car charging stations around the country in late 2018. This included an initial investment of R30 million to construct what Jaguar calls the Powerway – a string of charging stations running along the N3 from Gauteng to Durban, and the N1 from Gauteng to Cape Town.
AEVERSA
Aeversa provides EV charging stations as well as services helping businesses convert their fleet of ICE (internal combustion engine) cars to EVs. Although they do not boast a large number of public charging stations, they are the most active in the commercial charging stations industry. The company specialises in setting up EV charging stations on business premises for private use.
GridCars
GridCars is South Africa’s largest public EV charging station operator, with over 350 charging stations around the country. The company is also planning on erecting at least another 100 charging stations before the end of the year. The company partnered with Jaguar Land Rover to rollout their EV charging stations around the country. The company’s website also has what is arguably the most accurate EV car charging stations map in South Africa, showing its own charging stations as well as the charging stations that are part of the network of other brands.
Rubicon
Rubicon operates about 94 EV charging stations and plans to add 150 new charging stations before the end of the year. The company partnered with Audi to roll out their EV charging stations. As the two largest public EV charging station companies in the country, GridCars and Rubicon have partnered to allow customers of both to use each other’s charging stations soon.
Other rising EV charging station companies in SA include Finnish company Virta and Australian company Elanga, who only have a few charging stations around the country.
There are currently around 400 EV charging stations in South Africa with hundreds more planned to be established by this time next year. The companies mentioned in this article are going to play a large part in the continued rollout. See here for a map of all the charging stations in SA: GridCars | Charge Points.
What do you think of the companies in this article? What does the future of EV charging in South Africa look like from your point of view? Share your thoughts by replying to this email!
For more information on EV charging, or any other energy related articles, view the blog posts on my website and be sure to open my weekly emails every Tuesday at 9AM CAT.
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