BMW SA opens new charging stations

Photo: Simphiwe Mbokazi

Photo: Simphiwe Mbokazi

Published Feb 27, 2017

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Pretoria - BMW Group South Africa has introduced a new charging station in the Constantia Village shopping complex in Cape Town as part of its continuing effort to expand public charging infrastructure in the Mother City for electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs).

The new charging station was established as part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2015 by BMW Group South Africa and Nissan South Africa to expand charging infrastructure for EVs and PHEVs throughout the country. Under the MoU, three charging stations located at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town were introduced in 2016.

They supplemented the charging stations already installed by the BMW Group across 31 BMW dealerships countrywide, at the Melrose Arch precinct in Johannesburg and the solar carport charging station at BMW Group South Africa’s head office in Midrand to make public charging easily accessible for customers who purchased EV and PHEV models.

The Constantia Village fast charging station offers Type 2 connections that can be used by the BMW i3 and i8, making it future proof and cater for future EV and PHEV models.

The initiative forms part of BMW’s holistic approach to electro-mobility, which has resulted in BMW since about 2006 bringing to market a number of programmes, including e-mobility, DriveNow and ParkNow.

DriveNow is a car sharing service in some cities that allows people to choose a BMW or MINI model and use it for city travel while they are billed per minute, which means they pay only for the time they need the car.

Read also:  BMW to bring solar charging stations to SA

ParkNow Long Term helps BMW i customers find long-term parking options with charging stations in multi-storey car parks near their home or workplace.

Tim Abbott, the chief executive of BMW-SA and sub-Saharan Africa, said at the launch of the solar carport at its Midrand head office in May last year that through these initiatives BMW began to recognise that it was not just about driving the car, but how to get “from A to B and where to park”.

Abbott said at the time large corporations were now indicating they wanted to be part of this initiative and supermarket chain Pick * Pay was talking about having a charging port at all of their outlets.

Interested

Menlyn Park Shopping Centre in Pretoria was also interested in installing charging ports, he said. Alan Boyd, the product manager for BMW i and 360° Electric portfolio, said public charging points were also scheduled to be installed at the Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria.

Abbott said the solar carport initiative was in line with BMW’s focus on sustainable development, adding his vision for BMW’s manufacturing plant in Rosslyn was that it should be 100 percent sustainable by 2020. He said this would probably involve an extension of the Bio2Watt biogas programme at Bronkhorspruit, which currently provides 35 percent of the plant’s energy needs.

With the Tshwane Metro it was also looking at bringing methane gas into the plant from the landfill site close to the plant, he said. BMW-SA is investing R6 billion in the Rosslyn plant in preparation for the production of the X3.

Abbott said they were looking at a 35 percent reduction in water usage by the plant when production shifted from the 3-Series to the X3. Production of the BMW X3 at the Rosslyn plant will replace production of the BMW 3-Series sedan, which will be allocated to other plants in the group’s production network.

BMW SA has, to date, declined to comment on when production of the BMW X3 would commence, but confirmed BMW models typically had a seven-year lifecycle. Production of the current BMW 3-Series model commenced at the Rosslyn plant in 2012.

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