PRETORIA – A R30 million infrastructure investment by Jaguar, in conjunction with electric vehicle charging authority GridCars, has led to the installation of 82 new public charging stations in South Africa.
A total of 30 public charging stations would be established at various points of convenience, such as shopping centres, in the country’s major hubs, including Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Bloemfontein in addition to publicly available charging stations to be installed in customer parking areas at every Jaguar Land Rover retailer in South Africa.
South Africa’s city centres would also be connected by the Jaguar Powerway, a series of 22 charging stations along the N3 between Gauteng and Durban and the N1 between Gauteng and Cape Town. Cape Town would also be connected to the Garden Route with a series of charging stations along the N2 all the way to East London.
The entire Jaguar charging grid and Powerway was expected to be operational by the end of November.
Richard Gouverneur, the managing director of Jaguar Land Rover South Africa and sub-Sahara Africa, said these charging stations had laid the foundation for the future of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in South Africa.
“As Jaguar we are proud to be setting the pace for the new generation of electric vehicles in South Africa. The launch of the Jaguar Powerway demonstrates our commitment to electrification technology and the future of mobility in our market,” he said.
Gouverneur said the new network would provide peace of mind to customers of the Jaguar I-Pace, which was scheduled to be launched into the domestic market early next year and had a range of up to 470km.
The majority of charging stations on the public network would be 60kW/h fast chargers, which meant 100km of range would take around 20 minutes for Jaguar I-PACE owners.
A charge from 0 to 80 percent will take around 72 minutes. Charging station rates would be discounted by 25 percent for all Jaguar Land Rover electric vehicles or plug in hybrid electric vehicles. Gouverneur said a full 90kW/h battery recharge in an I-Pace would cost between R270 and R315.