The branding is meant to say that the vehicles are assembled in Africa, by Africans, to meet African realities.

We do not envisage the emergence of Safricar dealerships like the Apple stores that only sell their own brand.  We envisage distribution through existing dealerships like Toyota, Mahindra and Ford.  (Assumption: that these brands join the Safricar movement.)

For example, the Safricar might combine a Mahindra chassis and power train with a Toyota diesel engine and a Ford automatic transmission.  At the design stage, stakeholders can combine forces and strengths into the Safricar.  But this should arise first from the Open Dialogue about Safricar specifications and its “look and feel”.

From C4L’s perspective, this initiative is above all to create jobs for unemployed youth.  It is primarily social innovation.

Yes it can include technological innovations like “on-board hydrogen” which suits South Africa much better than EVs.  For heaven’s sake, we already have an electricity crisis without switching to EVs by 2030.  We need to find our own way to reduce emissions and clean up our air and water.

According to ZCC (Zero Carbon Charge), research it conducted shows that and EV charged by Eskom’s grid indirectly emits 5.8 tonnes of CO2 per year, versus 4.4 tonnes for a petrol powered car.

This could explain why import tariffs are 25% on electric vehicles (EVs), versus 18% for vehicles with internal combustion engines.  South Africa has limited supplies of electricity and what it does have is “dirty energy”.  Thus the Safricar approach of dual hybrids is much more congruent.

The Department of Transport has a target of net-zero transport by 2050.  The dual hybrids approach is the short-cut to that target.