EV100, the global corporate fleet electrification initiative of The Climate Group, has convened its first South Africa electromobility dialogue series, bringing together fleet operators, logistics companies, charge point operators, government representatives and industry bodies in Cape Town and Johannesburg to map the barriers and opportunities facing the country’s electric vehicle transition.
The Cape Town session drew participants from GreenCape, The Electric Mission, the Western Cape Government, the City of Cape Town, logistics operator Unitrans, Nova Moto, ZIMI and other fleet and infrastructure stakeholders. The Johannesburg session brought together a more industry-focused group including AstraZeneca, Siemens, Nestlé, GridCars and the National Business Initiative.
Across both cities, a clear signal emerged: electric mobility is no longer a future consideration but a present-day business priority, driven by cost efficiencies, sustainability commitments and the need to future-proof operations against fuel price volatility.
The sessions mark the launch of EV100’s expanded programme in South Africa, one of seven new emerging markets the initiative has identified as priorities for corporate fleet engagement alongside Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Indonesia, Kenya and Colombia.
South Africa’s automotive sector sustains an estimated 500 000 jobs and exported vehicles and components worth R268.8 billion in 2024, making the EV transition a matter of industrial strategy as much as climate policy. Yet the country’s EV market remains at an early stage, with new battery electric vehicle sales declining from 1 257 units in 2024 to 1 088 in 2025, according to NAAMSA data*, while plug-in hybrid sales surged from 728 to 2 810 over the same period, a trend that raised concern among participants.
Hiten Parmar, founder of The Electric Mission, set out the challenge at the Cape Town session. “Global corporations want to honour their headquarters commitments and genuinely grow South Africa’s market, but there is no anchor point to make that happen,” he said. “That is why we have been below 1% of passenger car sales since 2013, and why we remain in limbo.” Parmar argued the moment was nonetheless ripe for a decisive shift, pointing to South Africa’s 9.5 gigawatts of privately installed rooftop solar as evidence that concerns about grid reliability had run out of road as an excuse for inaction.
The clearest signal of subnational government intent came from Yaasier Ahmed, representing the City of Cape Town, with his department also working very closely with the Western Cape (Provincial) Government who also had representation from its Fleet trading entity in the session. Ahmed told delegates that the province manages a fleet of approximately 8 500 vehicles and the City approximately 10 000, and that transitioning both to new energy vehicles was central to meeting their net-zero commitments.
The City has approximately 30 electric buses on order for the MyCiTi service. City of Cape Town new energy vehicle adoption plan is due to go to the City Manager by June, Ahmed said, with the province having already taken its first EV strategy to cabinet in 2021, with a broader NEV Strategy having followed that in 2025. “If industry is waiting for the government to clearly state what the government’s position is, I think between the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town we have been fairly clear,” he said.”
Ahmed was equally direct about the limits of borrowing from more advanced markets, and set out an ambition extending beyond fleet replacement to systemic change. “We are now moving towards not just looking at how we electrify our fleets, but how we focus on building a regional clean mobility system. The majority of our people do not have access to a car, let alone an electric car with a higher capital cost.”
In Johannesburg, Ewan Botha, Gauteng MEC for Environment, brought the just transition argument to the centre of the discussion. “If we start looking at things like EVs, it becomes not just crucial for climate change, not just crucial for industry, but crucial to keep economies going,” he said. Botha was candid about the political stakes of the transition in a deeply unequal society.
“We are living in an incredibly unequal country. We have got serious poverty and serious inequality. We have to find a way to explain to people that we are shifting this needle, but in a way that no one is going to lose any jobs and in fact we are going to create more jobs.” Gauteng is home to 5.5 million registered vehicles and Africa’s largest dry port, and participants noted that transport emissions in the province are rising faster than in any other sector.
The corporate demand signal from Johannesburg was equally strong, with Siemens, AstraZeneca, GridCars and the National Business Initiative among those signalling intent to accelerate fleet electrification. Participants across both sessions emphasised total cost of ownership as the primary driver, with lower fuel and maintenance costs delivering tangible savings over vehicle lifecycles, reducing exposure to fuel price shocks and supporting environmental, social and governance commitments simultaneously.
Rita Naude of GreenCape projected a R19 billion EV opportunity by 2030, concentrated in high-utilisation fleet segments. Last-mile delivery alone is expected to account for more than 22 000 vehicles and R13.9 billion of that total, with buses, logistics trucks and passenger vehicles making up the remainder.
Justin Velsman of ZIMI presented real-world cost data from deployments already under way, including Bakers Transport, a logistics operator, that achieved 85% fuel savings and a 31% carbon reduction within a year. The presence of Nova Moto, a Cape Town-based company providing electric last-mile delivery motorcycle rentals and battery-swap infrastructure to retail and food delivery businesses, underscored that electrification at the commercial frontier is already commercially active in South Africa.
Participants across both sessions stressed that the benefits of fleet electrification extend beyond individual companies. Reduced reliance on imported fuels strengthens energy security and supports the country’s trade balance, while the transition creates a pathway for industrial development in charging infrastructure, services and local value chains.
Closing the Cape Town session, Dominic Phinn, Head of Transport at The Climate Group, called out vested interests seeking to slow the transition and pointed to Japan as a cautionary example of policy fragmentation stalling an otherwise capable market. “We want to avoid that in South Africa. We want to get it on the front foot.” He identified certainty as the critical unlock. “You need certainty in technology and certainty in policy, and there is some really strong leadership coming from the regional government. When you get that certainty in place, a lot of the benefits will follow.”
Priority actions identified across both sessions include aggregating corporate fleet demand to demonstrate purchasing power to government and OEMs, advocating for binding fleet electrification targets, tapered consumer incentives for vehicles priced below R400 000, and a coverage-first national charging corridor strategy.
EV100 currently counts 120 corporate members worldwide, with 400 000 battery electric vehicles deployed and 48 500 charging units installed across its network.