Durban — In a bid to promote and represent a good strategy to stop global warming, Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga is looking at rewarding South African motorists for buying electric cars.
Chikunga was speaking at the 41st annual Southern African Transport Conference (SATC), where she said there are nearly 13 million vehicles on South Africa’s roads, a third of which are goods vehicles.
“Collectively, road transport contributes 95.7% of the country’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Part of the Department of Transport's mandate is the drafting of policy and legislation that tackles global transport issues like GHG emissions. One such solution to tackle increased GHG emissions is to encourage the adoption of cleaner transport options such as compressed natural gas buses, electric, and hydrogen-run vehicles,” she said.
Research has shown that electric cars are better for the environment. They emit fewer greenhouse gases and air pollutants than petrol or diesel cars.
Minister Chikunga said the government is considering introducing incentives for those who opt for cleaner, alternative fuels over traditional cars.
She said the possibility of introducing incentives could encourage citizens to look at electric options when purchasing their next car.
Over the last few years, the global motoring industry has slowly been making the shift to electric vehicles (EV), and most of the car manufactures now have an EV on their names.
While the Minister did not submit a specific policy, a call for incentives to those that adopt alternative, cleaner fuels - of which electric is the current leader - which reduce GHG emissions was clear.
“As government, we may have to improve the design of incentives to reward those whose transport production or consumption activities result in positive externalities," she said.
Many carmakers have even made a commitment to do a complete shift to EVs as early as 2025. The real trick, however, is getting the public to make the switch.
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