Cape City’s EV Pilot Challenge Exhibits A Sturdy Enterprise Case For Municipalities To Procure EVs For Their Fleets

Municipalities are identified to function giant fleets to maintain their operations getting in a number of areas. A current case examine by the Metropolis of Cape City’s transport division, in collaboration with GreenCape, provides some very invaluable insights into a few of these operations and the way they are often electrified. The report cites that the Metropolis of Cape City has a complete fleet measurement of 9,386 autos throughout varied departments. These departments embrace Company Companies, MyCiti Bus Fast Transit, Water and Sanitation, City Waste Administration, and Power.

One of many key insights we get from the report is that the  Metropolis of Cape City’s automobile fleet had a complete on-road gasoline consumption of 15.9 million liters of diesel and 6.4 million liters of petrol between October 2021 and October 2022. This resulted within the Metropolis having a gasoline invoice of near R465 million ($24.5 million) throughout that interval. The report provides that the full annual CO2 emissions for the Metropolis’s automobile fleet is 57,314 tonnes of CO2, primarily based on the on-road gasoline consumption knowledge over the identical interval.

Consistent with the Metropolis’s Local weather Change Motion Plan (CCAP) objectives of carbon neutrality by 2050 and the Metropolis’s drive to point out management by gathering real-world knowledge from the EV pilot program, the Metropolis procured 5 battery-electric autos (BEVs). The Metropolis additionally put in some charging stations as a part of a pilot program to guage the case for electrifying its fleet. As a part of the pilot program, the Metropolis highlighted that it was essential to get electrical autos which might be match for function and {that a} appropriate charging community is developed to assist operational necessities for the particular use circumstances. One of many superb operations for such a program was a fleet of 477 hatchbacks.

The GreenCape’s Report says:

“There are roughly 477 hatchback passenger autos within the CCT fleet which have the potential to get replaced with an electrical various, primarily based on the end result of the CCT EV pilot undertaking. Passenger autos have been recognized as a possibility for electrification because of the excessive annual mileage of this automobile phase within the Metropolis’s fleet. The common annual mileage for a passenger automobile (sedans and hatchbacks) within the CCT fleet is 35 000 km. The estimated annual gasoline consumption of the 477 ICE hatchback autos is 1 769 670 litres of petrol with an estimated annual emissions amounting to 4 000 tonnes of CO2. The annual value of refuelling all the ICE hatchback autos within the Metropolis fleet is roughly R40 million ($2.13 million). EVs have decrease operational prices and produce no direct tailpipe emissions on the level of operation. Due to this fact, the potential electrification of this automobile fleet phase may help to avoid wasting each operational gasoline prices and scale back GHG emissions.”

The pilot due to this fact zoned in on this space, utilizing 5 BMW i3 hatchbacks and evaluating them with the usual ICE automobile of their fleet, the petrol-powered VW Golf 7 GTI. The Metropolis additionally deployed six EV charging stations to facilitate the charging necessities of the 5 BMW i3s. Two of the EV charging stations, situated at Bellville Civic Centre and Somerset West Civic Centre, are solar-powered amenities. The BMW i3 was chosen because it was probably the most inexpensive battery-electric automobile in South Africa on the time, and was additionally the one small electrical five-door hatchback accessible on the South African market that’s in a phase closest to the VW Golf 7 GTI.

The BMW i3s had been deployed within the Metropolis of Cape City’s Visitors Companies division over a interval of three years from 2020 to 2022. The EVs had been in contrast in operations to the 5 VW Golf GTI ICE autos to guage efficiency on the subject of mileage, vitality consumption, and vary. The Golf GTI ICE autos had a mean annual mileage of fifty,000 km and a mean gasoline consumption of 10.6 liters of petrol per 100km. The report says telemetry monitoring knowledge obtained from the 5 BMWi3 autos used within the CCT EV pilot undertaking was used to mannequin the vitality effectivity and price per km of utilizing EVs within the context of a municipal automobile fleet. Right here is the abstract of the outcomes.

Picture courtesy of GreenCape and the Metropolis of Cape City

As proven above, it’s clear to see that the EV pilot undertaking confirmed that the acquisition value plus operational prices of electrical passenger autos are extra inexpensive than its inner combustion engine automobile equal. The report additionally provides that there’s a enterprise case for procuring electrical passenger autos for municipal fleets, which can be utilized as a decarbonization lever in municipalities, if charged with renewable vitality. As said within the report, a Cape City State of Power and Carbon Report from 2021, exhibits that street transport contributes in direction of 28.7% of Cape City’s GHG emissions. On the subject of whole vitality consumption, street transport contributes in direction of 54.4% of Cape City’s whole vitality consumption.

Picture courtesy of GreenCape and the Metropolis of Cape City

The report additionally highlights that the BMWi3 EVs had been bought at a unit value of R608,755 by a public procurement course of in 2020. Comparatively, the ICE VW Golf GTI autos had been procured at a unit value of R587,951. The operational value per km of utilizing the BMWi3 EVs was R0.35 to R0.46. The price of electrical energy in Cape City has been estimated at R2.30 per kWh. If the CCT Fleet Administration Division spends R1,000 on electrical energy this could translate into 435 kWh of electrical energy or 3,319 km of EV vary. Comparatively, the operational value per km of utilizing the VW Golf GTI is R2.36 per km. The price of petrol has been assumed as R22.30 per liter. For each R1,000 that’s spent on petrol by the CCT, this could translate into forty-five liters of gasoline, or 735 km of driving vary.

This case examine is a superb instance for different municipalities in South Africa in addition to the remainder of the continent. It’s actually nice to see actual case research from the African continent that can be utilized to catalyze extra roll-outs of pilots in addition to industrial packages for electrification of key fleet operators.

The pilot used the one available BEV on this phase on the time, however the excellent news is there are actually extra BEV fashions accessible in south Africa now, or that may quickly be provided there, that are in a comparable value vary however now with an entire lot extra vary and far sooner charging than these i3s.

Taking a look at passenger autos for related functions that aren’t that rather more costly than the i3s, the upcoming Volvo EX30, the BYD ATTO 3, and Nice Wall Motors Ora Good Cat, we will see that there’s now an exceptionally good vary of BEV fashions to select from in South Africa. These fashions are all priced beneath R800,000 and the case examine round these would additionally look good.

This Cape City case examine jogged my memory of my current go to to Washington DC, the place I noticed quite a lot of Chevy Bolts being utilized by the native site visitors division, an ideal utility of EVs.

You’ll be able to take a look on the full report right here.