Editorial Comment: Electric vehicles are the future, let’s embrace them

UNDER present global agreements, no more petrol or diesel vehicles will be built anywhere in the world after 2035, with some countries, such as India, determined to end such production sooner. So it makes sense for all countries to be creating the required infrastructure for electric fleets, and to encourage those buying new vehicles to think electric.

President Mnangagwa brought up the need for this on Monday when he accepted an electric vehicle from a Chinese manufacturer, Build Your Dream, and recognised that Zimbabwe needed to leapfrog over obsolete technologies as it modernised and industrialised. In this regard, the Government needs to intervene to help remove bottlenecks and other obstacles.

The advantages of electric cars are very obvious. The almost 1,5 billion internal combustion engines on the world’s roads are probably the largest contributor to greenhouse gases and global warming. Part of the reason is the sheer inefficiency of petrol and diesel engines, 30 percent being considered really good, while electric motors run at over 90 percent efficiency.

So even if electric vehicles are charged up from coal and natural gas power stations, and these are significantly more efficient than the little petroleum-fuelled engines in motor vehicles, the world wins big, and with the continually rising percentage of power coming from green sources, the advantage just keeps growing.

Electric vehicles also have large advantages in running costs. They are considerably simpler, with no gear boxes, far lower servicing costs since no lubricating oils or filters, and far less motor wear, and that slashes running costs. Electricity costs per 100km are a lot lower than petroleum fuel costs at normal rates, thanks to the efficiency of the motors and batteries, and even at the higher charges for “fast charging” are no more than petroleum fuel costs.

But there is a need for infrastructure, especially charging points and charging stations. Just as people stop off at service stations selling petrol and diesel when they travel, they will need to stop off at service stations with charging points, although many will be able to charge at home, and blocks of flats and many businesses will need charging points in their parking areas.

Outfits like City Parking will probably be able to make money by having plug-in charging points in parking garages so motorists can charge up while parked at work.

But there is this chicken and egg problem. Wide use of electric vehicles requires a strong and widespread network of charging points, while the cost of installing those charging points requires a widespread use of electric vehicles so there are customers. A similar problem arose when petrol and diesel cars were replacing horses, but at least early motorists could carry their fuel in cans strapped to the side of cars, hence those running boards and attachment points on many vehicles right up into the 1930s.

So one need from now in Zimbabwe is to encourage the provision of charging points. One solution could be to make such provision a condition of the licences that service stations need to obtain to be allowed to sell petrol and diesel, that they have to add a growing number of charging points near their forecourts and have a proper system so people can pay.

This would obviously have to be phased in, but that seems possible. In any case, as more electric vehicles are on the road, some service stations are likely to see extra business. One multiple business model opens to those who host a fast-food restaurant, that they can combine fast charging points with their food sales, so a driver can grab a snack while the car is charged.

Of course, Zesa needs to be able to supply. But Zesa already has expansion programmes with its own power stations and with independent power producers that will first end load-shedding and then produce surpluses. So Zesa just needs to feed in estimates of the growing demand for mains electricity for electric vehicles, and to make sure that the mini-grids being looked at for many rural areas can be easily extended with a component for charging the farm pick-ups.

Experience from many countries has raised other issues, such as the need to have a single common payment card that all charging points will accept. This would be one of those smart cards that can be pre-filled and just stuck in and activated with a PIN for a fixed payment or a fixed number of units or even for a “fill-up”. But drivers need to be able to use the same card everywhere.

There is also a need for suppliers of electric vehicles to have proper spares inventories, and be able and willing to train mechanics and technicians, even with the less demanding servicing requirements. This would include training up panel beaters so they know what to do when they are preparing an accident-damaged electric vehicle for the more robust work.

Several countries have lower or zero licence fees for electric vehicles, and the local chief executive of Build Your Dream brought this up after the handover of the car to President Mnangagwa. This should be considered, but it can only be a temporary measure to help overcome initial resistance. Eventually electric vehicles must pay their share of road costs and this is already happening in countries that had that initial promotion and are now reintroducing licence fees for electric vehicles.

Where Build Your Own is on far stronger grounds is with the carbon tax. Obviously electric vehicles should be exempt, permanently, and it is strange that Zimbabwe still charges such a tax on electric vehicles.

In fact, a good economic pressure on building up demand for electric vehicles and reducing demand for petroleum vehicles would be a continually increasing carbon tax, so the petrol and diesel car owners pay ever more each year until they switch to electric and pay zero.

Zimbabwe will be a big winner from the global conversion of the vehicle fleet from petroleum fuels to electricity, indirectly by the sharp reduction in greenhouse gases. But we are also one of the countries, thanks to our lithium ores and lithium mining, to be a direct beneficiary and that will be a serious export earner once we start making the batteries. It will make us the sort of country that oil producers are now.