Lees Meer
Let us start by addressing the new modern issue currently in South Africa
Not everyone is sold on Electric vehicles in S.A. now.
Reasons (And we understand why)
- It is an unknown
- Range Anxiety
- Pricing
We tested three of Volvo South Africa’s Electric Models
The EX 30 Ultra Twin Motor Performance at around R 1 025 000.00
The C 40 P8 Recharge Twin AWD Ultimate at around R 1 099 950.00
The XC 40 P6 Recharge Single Motor Plus at around R 1 099 900.00
The range on all three models is very similar depending on how you drive, you will get around 350km to about 400 km on a single charge, all of them were used like a usual/normal day, dropping off the kids at school, Sports after school and your normal day to day to work and back. To get the most accurate readings.
I won’t say any of these vehicles are for long distances as South Africa’s Charging stations across major highways are not up to standard, I think the best way to charge your electric vehicle will be with the faster DC charger on daily commutes. If you want to charge it at home, then your normal AC charger will be sufficient, but the time frame will be a lot longer
Let’s quickly see how fast these vehicles charge
All three of them were charged on the fast-charging DC charger not on the AC charger as that takes you about 10 hours to fully charge
The DC chargers on all three vehicles took around 1 Hour and 20 Minutes give or take on what size the DC chargers were at different locations
The 150KW chargers did a charge from 8 % to fully charged in around 1 hour 14 Minutes
The cost of this is about R 330.00 to about R 350.00 per charge cycle
What does this then tell us? Internal combustion engines are still probably the best way to go but for your daily commute to work and back?
Electric will work if you plan correctly. A tank of fuel on a small Hatch is around R 800.00 to R 1000.00 per week. Electric is around R 300.00 to R 350.00 per week.
Every 15,000 km your ICE vehicle needs to be serviced, your electric vehicle does not. It only needs a check after 40 000 km to see how the batteries’ health is
Opinion:
Keep one Internal combustion and as an alternative daily vehicle Electric.
