Ahead Nissan Leaf's Debut in South Africa

While the first Nissan LEAFs will be on sale in South Africa around September this year, the next step towards ensuring the accompanying infrastructure is put in place was taken on Wednesday.

Eskom and Nissan announced that they will be joining in a three-year research project that will include testing the LEAF to see the impact of charging these vehicles on the country’s grid. It follows a pilot programme to promote public awareness of electric vehicles by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and one with the Technology Innovation Agency to create a commercially viable infrastructure for the use of the vehicles.

Ten Nissan LEAF cars were handed over to Eskom by Nissan SA Sales, Marketing and Aftersales director Johan Kleynhans for the project. According to Barry MacColl, Eskom’s research, testing and development general manager, Eskom has been doing electric vehicle research for several years with the intention of understanding the impact of the vehicles on the grid.

“We also want to understand usage patterns and charging characteristics of the cars themselves in order to design grid solutions and tariffs for e-mobility,” he said. He added that Eskom was intent upon finding technology options suitable for implementation within the energy body.
The LEAF has already been rolled out for mass market sales in Japan, the USA and Europe; so far over 60 000 have sold globally.

Earlier this year, at the launch of the DEA’s Zero Emission Green Cars programme in Gauteng Minister Edna Molewa indicated that certain key areas have already been identified for the installation of dual-grid charging stations for electric vehicles. Edwin Maseda, the DEA’s facilities management chief director, said that these areas include the city centre of Pretoria and Johannesburg as well as areas in the Ekurhuleni Metro. At the time he indicated that approximately 50 stations were planned for the end of the year.

In May this year the Department of Trade and Industry finally released its Electric Vehicle Road Map (a three-fold brochure) that was delayed for quite some time. Originally the third iteration of the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) indicated that the final draft position paper on electric vehicles should have already been in place in the first quarter of 2011/2012. The Road Map indicates that an Action Plan should be in place by September this year and that proposals on infrastructure should be handed over to the relevant authorities by the same time.