South Africa, like many emerging markets, is slow in adapting to electric vehicles. The major barriers electric vehicles have faced are range, price, and infrastructure to support battery charging.
Go-lectric, a start-up business based in Fish Hoek, Cape Town, is passionate about developing the electric vehicle industry in South Africa. They are importing electric motor scooters which are extremely well suited to students, short-distance commuters and delivery drivers. The scooters are fully licensed for South African roads, unlike electric bicycles. They are also low-cost to buy and maintain, have a longer range (60-120km dependent on scooter) and can travel at higher speeds.
These electric scooters cost around 6c/km vs petrol scooters which run at above 30c/km. They also require little maintenance thanks to the few mechanical parts. Electric scooters don’t require the sophisticated charging plugs that electric cars require – you simply plug the scooter into a normal domestic plug!
A local pizza takeaway business, Our Pizza Place, has decided to collaborate with Go-lectric in this exciting venture, and if the pilot project is successful they are committed to slowly replacing their delivery vehicles with the Go-lectric scooters to reduce their carbon footprint. You may think that this will put additional pressure on the already overloaded grid however solar panels will be installed at Our Pizza Place in order to charge these scooters without additional strain and of course to mitigate any risk of load shedding affecting pizza deliveries. Talk about sustainability!
Go-lectric are also piloting the development of battery swaps stations, where discharged batteries can be instantly swapped for fully charged ones. The fee for this will be considerably lower than for petrol and is not subject to the vagaries of the oil prices or government’s levies and taxes. Charging stations will all be powered by the sun!
“The adoption of electric motor bikes and scooters is the first step towards introducing the practical and sustainable world of electric vehicles to a wider South African audience,” says David Johnston, Founder and Director of Go-lectric.
As part of the collaboration with Our Pizza Place, Go-lectric are giving away one electric scooter to anyone over 16 years of age who resides in the Western Cape! Please note that driving these scooters also requires the appropriate license. To enter this awesome competition, all you have to do is like Go-lectric and Our Pizza Place on Facebook and Instragram, and share the competition post. Becoming an electric scooter owner has never been so easy! This competition will run from 16 April to 16 May 2021.
All Go-lectric vehicles are also available for pre-order. For more information please email [email protected].
Pictures: Supplied