by Conrad Roedern
Electric vehicles (EVs) come with so many advantages: much lower cost for maintenance and fuel, no CO2 emissions if driven on green electricity and potentially saving Namibia billions for importing fuel. So, what are the reasons that currently only less than 200 EVs are roaming Namibian roads?
Let us start here: what are the expectations? 5 000, 10 000 or 100 000 EVs by 2030? The number 5 000 would have been a decent “educated guess” but especially politicians like to brag and came up with figures as high as 100 000.
One answer to the slow uptake can be found in R.I.P.: in our case this does not stand for “rest in peace” but for Range-Infrastructure-Price, the most commonly cited arguments seen as limiting the use of EVs in daily life.
Let us start with Range: modern EVs typically have a range of 350 to 650km on a fully charged battery which would be sufficient for most driving needs if there would be a sufficient number of fast-chargers distributed throughout the country, able to recharge within less than one hour.
This brings us to the next stumbling stone: Infrastructure of fast-chargers which is a precondition if we are to see much more EVs in Namibia. In 2023, one premium brand dealership announced plans to roll out a basic charging network, allowing to service most of Namibia’s tarred road network within two years.
Unfortunately, this has not yet materialised and one of the reasons can be partly attributed to Price: for a new SUV-style EV with sufficient range one would have to fork out a sum of between N$1.3 million and N$1.9 million. Who would be willing to spend such an amount if the car can’t be charged enroute or at the destination?
To sum it up: the hen and egg problem, i. e. no infrastructure of a fast-charging network which means no expensive long-range EVs are sold and thus no demand for a fast-charging network; this is where the cat bites its tail. Therefore, the major brand dealerships did not embrace EVs although they sell their EVs in other parts of the world
Example: One traditional premium brand has two SUV type EVs in their show-room since 2023 but so far has been unable to start selling EVs because of that problem. Since all luxury brands face this problem no competitive drive is spurring any demand for any meaningful sales of new EVs.
But for a starting point: if you are looking at electric mobility for in-and-around-town-use the situation looks very differently: there is no range problem in many applications while the lack of infrastructure is mostly not felt since cars can be (slow) charged at home or at any 3-pin socket-outlet available. The price for a decent sedan-type EV can be brought down by reverting to imported pre-owned EVs with sufficient range for local use.
This is the reason why these EVs have become an astonishingly common sight on Windhoek’s streets: those who own them like them and they intensively use their EVs.
EVs will not rest in peace much longer. Already now we can see many signs of growth: In Windhoek, EVs in use as App-Taxis are now a common sight and more public charging points are becoming available with a second fast charger at the Grove Mall, a charger at Windhoek’s Municipality and the public charger at Arandis. So, even if it takes longer than expected: we’re getting there, step by step.
