Off-grid and on track: R100m boost for SA’s first EV charging network

Key topics:Charge secures R100m from DBSA for EV station expansionFive new solar-powered sites begin construction from July 2025Revised goal: 60 EV stations nationwide by end of 2027.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..By Hanno Labuschagne .Zero Carbon Charge has explained how it plans to use a R100-million investment to expand its off-grid electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.The Stellenbosch-based company, also known simply as Charge, announced this past week that it secured this funding from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).Charge rolled out South Africa’s first fully off-grid EV charging station on the N12 between Klerksdorp and Wolmaransstad in November 2024.The facility is powered by a 280kWp ground-based solar PV plant, 546kWh liquid-cooled battery, and 250kVA generator using hydrotreated vegetable oil.The station also boasts the most powerful chargers in the country, with six DC points providing a maximum capacity of 480kW, and two AC chargers for plug-in hybrids or backup for EVs.Charge aims to roll out 120 stations for passenger EVs over the next few years, including 720 DC and 240 AC charging points. Another 120 stations are planned specifically for EV trucks.While Charge planned to launch another two stations early this year, co-founder Joubert Roux told MyBroadband that government regulations had obstructed this strategy.The latest funding will allow the company to develop five new stations, with work commencing in mid-July 2025. Roux said that the first three locations are guaranteed:Kohler in the Free State — On the N3 at intersection with Reitz/Roadside RoadKopleegte in KwaZulu-Natal — Turnoff to Colenzo/Winterton on N3 in KwaZulu-NatalSutherland in the Northern Cape— Intersection of the N1 and R354 in.Two more stations on the N6 at Wagon Wheel Pies and 1.5km outside Alwal Noord are planned to be the next two sites, but are subject to change.Roux said that the revised initial goal is to have national coverage of 60 sites at 300km intervals, as EVs can travel at 300km intervals at a time.“Thereafter, we will complete the outstanding 60 to make each station 150km apart, as initially intended,” he said..Charge first announced its ambitious plan to roll out 120 off-grid EV stations in 2023. It had originally anticipated that these would be completed by September 2025.With just four months to go until the original target date, the station on the N12 remains its only site.In previous feedback to MyBroadband, the company pushed out the target date for network completion to early 2026 and then late 2026, before its latest revision to 2027.Roux told MyBroadband that the rollout has been incredibly difficult due to government regulations, particularly in developing a first for South Africa.Based on these lessons and the reality that unforeseen government regulations can “throw any curveball” at the company, Charge anticipates the end of 2027 as the new completion date.Roux called for greater awareness and leadership at the government level to review regulations and foster the understanding that endless regulations prevent catalytic infrastructure projects.“There cannot only be grid-based EV charging that is being rolled out faster, when the first off-grid solution takes far longer and is heavily regulated,” he said.Roux said the country needed less red tape to grow its economy. Nonetheless, he remained adamant about the company’s future prospects.“South Africans can be guaranteed that an off-grid, national network of dedicated EV charging stations will be a reality and cross-country travel without range anxiety will be possible,” Roux said..This article was first published on MyBroadband and was republished with permission

Off-grid and on track: R100m boost for SA’s first EV charging network

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