switch to electric cars to reduce their environmental footprint? The answer is no.
Electric vehicles are quite literally the dirtiest available means of personal transport in South Africa Thus we can conclude that until and unless South Africa has thoroughly reformed electricity generation and distribution, electric cars should not even be remotely considered as environmentally friendly — they are quite literally the dirtiest available means of personal transport.
Many people may be dubious of the capital cost of the infrastructure needed for those modes of transport. This can be remedied by conducting the quick exercise of multiplying the number of cars registered in South Africa by the price of a Tesla , or recall that even a lightly trafficked rural road costs R3.5-million per kilometre, with freeways costing several multiples of that per lane.
If and when South Africa’s energy picture improves to the point that EVs have a lower carbon footprint than internal combustion engines, they will still compare badly to other personal transport options, and their widespread adoption will still require a carbon- and resource-intensive transition process. Subsidies should not be allocated on a “second-worst option” basis.
Then there are the charge and discharge efficiencies. Not all the electricity that comes out of the socket makes it into the battery, and not all the energy from the battery makes it into the motor, as some of it is lost as charge self-dissipation from the battery. If someone keeps an electric car charged, but seldom uses it, then charge dissipation will represent a higher percentage of overall energy consumption than if they use it more frequently.
Eskom’s transmission distances are rather more considerable than the global average; the belt of coal-fired power stations in Mpumalanga is 160km from Johannesburg, 600km from Durban and 1 600km from Cape Town. Eskom has also reported that some 10% of the grid’s electricity is lost to illegal connections. These compounded issues make it unlikely that overall efficiency exceeds 80%, but we can use that figure without too much risk of embarrassment.
Assumes without any proof that EV owners won't be charging using their own solar panels. Poorly reasoned.
It can be 100x dirtier, I really don't care, if I can have an EV powered by the sun to avoid the rising cost of fuel, the uselessness of Eskom, the 'dirtiness' of the EV will be the last thing I worry about.