Electric minibus taxis to service thousands of people near Century City

Cape Town will soon see fully-electric minibus taxis in the Century City area.

CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit spoke to Justin Coetzee, founder and CEO of GoMetro, the company behind the eKamva electric minibus taxi.

Kiewit recalled that they launched the vehicle two years ago.

"We've subsequently been working on improving it and improving a lot of its working parts to make it suitable for South African conditions. As well as working with the Century City Property Owners Association, at their transport interchange to identify the routes and the operations that would be able to go electric first," said Coetzee.

They've concluded the research phase and identified the routes. They will start operating with about 15 associations that service more than 25,000 people who work, play and learn in Century City.

"So we'll be launching the first few routes later this year, about October. We expect to have everything in place to essentially test these vehicles on existing routes against existing operations... and then ordering and rolling out more and more vehicles over the next few years with the goal being that we can go fully electric at Century City over the next three to four years."

What is the upfront cost for a taxi owner?

"The battery is a very expensive component upfront. So we're trying to match the existing prices of a diesel or petrol locally available model by financing the chassis and the battery separately. So you have the vehicle financing, which is very equivalent to a diesel vehicle, and then your battery is an energy contract. Almost like an airtime contract."

Coetzee estimated cost savings of up to 50% to 70%, depending on how much solar you're using and how much home charging you're using.

"It's much simpler to maintain, much simpler to operate and much simpler in terms of maintenance to keep your vehicle on the road."

The banks are also getting on board, offering financing.

"Last week at the national transport conference, we engaged with SANTACO (South African National Taxi Council) at a national level to understand what financing vehicles the industry is looking to support and can support. We're also engaging with the National Department of Transport's taxi recap programme to enhance the recap for moving to an electric vehicle, and potentially exploring an enhanced recap amount for vehicles that seek a recap to go electric.

"We've been working with a very reputable international partner... so the banks are comfortable with the chassis risk and financing that.

"And the last bit that's needed is the battery risk and financing that. We're working with a very reputable battery manufacturer globally who's made millions and millions of these, so there's an enormous track record."

"This isn't a long-distance taxi. I wouldn't advise necessarily driving to the Eastern Cape just yet. Technology must first improve, and things must get more efficient before we can see that. However, all the taxis that we've been mapping and tracking certainly over the last year, they generally are doing up to 120 km of range in the morning as they do a few trips and then they have a three to four (hour) rest period in the middle of the day where they park up and they wait for the afternoon shift to begin. And in the afternoon, there's also an average of about 120km."

He says the range is 120km to 180km, so they plan to have multiple plug points for fast chargers at Century City, where taxis will be able to charge their vehicles in one hour during the off-peak period.