Electric Vehicles: Charging towards the future
Is it too soon to discuss the business opportunities that require electricity? Or is it just awkward?
Loadshedding (“The Sheds” as they are now affectionately known to me) turned a bittersweet 16 in February of this year. Did we throw a party? Or do we still not acknowledge its existence?
Another existence that seemingly went unnoticed until Pretoria was linked to it, was that of electric vehicles (EVs). We all seemed content debating naturally aspirated and turbo charged combustion engines for decades until we were suddenly confronted with climate change goals. And someone named Elon Musk emerged with a solution that would forever alter our conversations, as well as potentially our investment choices.
Yet long before the Model X, there was a Prius. And several years before that, there was an EV1 created by General Motors. And although it is clear who the front-runner is in modern development of EVs today, it’s interesting to note we have come a long way from the EVs of Thomas Parker in 1884 to the 460K vehicles delivered by Tesla in the latest quarter ended June.
Something else that may be of interest is knowing that China has 15 of the Top25 EV brands in the world.
Who knew there were 25 brands already!
If you need further evidence to validate EVs as an investment case though, then take a deeper look at the blue chip of the sector - Tesla.
For years, especially during the pandemic, Tesla was the definition of a value stock. Here was a company that was able to reach trillion-dollar status at the height of global uncertainty.
The share price had very little to do with the number of vehicles produced or sold, and largely to do with the perception that this was a stock of the future.
And like Formula E, it looks like no one wants to miss out, no one wants to be left behind. Not even South Africa.
Smart CEOs like Neal Froneman have realized that they don’t need to develop their own Tesla to take part in the EV sector. They just need to expand into the commodities that underpin this revolution. Still one of the bravest spending sprees I’ve seen in modern mining, kudos to Neal, Charl and the management team.
But even serial entrepreneurs are taking a stab at this. Yes, Agilitee may be a far cry from Tesla at this stage, but the effort remains a noble and commendable one. Let’s hope Mandla Lamba can realize the long-term potential of what he started.
Now you have brands Mercedes, Toyota and BMW all producing EV vehicles right within our own boarders.
This is one way to get a few runs on the board towards Just Energy Transition plans.
I say that fully aware that we do not have nearly enough charging stations and support infrastructure in this country to have fully electric vehicles at this stage.
But Steve Chang and the guys at BYD don’t seem to mind this, they are still entering South Africa.
We clearly have the labour and manufacturing conditions that have world class brands looking to our shores for their facilities. But maybe like Agilitee, we should be using this as a platform to launch something of our own.
From RedBull box cart races to university engineering assignments, there is no doubt that we have the ingenuity, creative design, and innovation. Founders like Fezile Dhlamini of Green Scooter are clear evidence of what limitless potential looks like.
And with investments from China, Germany and the Nordics seemingly growing where it relates to clean energy in South Africa, all the pieces of the puzzle seem to be there.
Who will put the puzzle together though?
What a serendipitous opportunity to get ahead of the game while we are supposedly fixing a near 2-decade long problem.
For now, the idea can live rent-free in our heads.