The prices electric vehicle owners in South Africa pay to top up their cars’ batteries can vary wildly depending on their energy source.While residential electricity tariffs have increased drastically over the past few years, the amount of battery range provided per rand spent is still substantially cheaper than when filling up with petrol or diesel in a similar internal combustion engine model.
In addition, the average per-kWh cost of electricity will be different for households with lower and higher monthly consumptions, even if they are on the same tariff plan under the same distributor. We then factored in Numbeo’s average daily commute of 44km for South African motorists and used the energy efficiency figures of the three best-selling EVs for 2023 to calculate rough figures.
Whether using a regular socket with a 2.3kW alternating current output or an 11kW AC home charger on a three-phase connection, the price-per-kWh will remain the same. The reason for this is simple. Charge point operators like GridCars, Rubicon, and Chargify invest substantially in building out EV charging infrastructure.