Volkswagen and Isuzu Motors have expressed scepticism about South Africa’s plans to develop electric and hydrogen-powered vehicle industries.

While government in February announced that car makers will be allowed to claim a 150% tax deduction on investment in facilities to make the vehicles, the local heads of both companies said they’ll stay focused on internal combustion engine vehicles.

The country’s automotive industry, which accounted for more than R271-billion in exports last year, is currently dependent on shipments to the EU, where legislation is expected gradually to reduce demand for vehicles that run on diesel and petrol.

“They won’t call on us to make battery electric vehicles here” as there is enough capacity in Europe and transport costs would be lower, Martina Biene, chairwoman and MD of Volkswagen South Africa, said at a conference in Gqeberha, close to her company’s 165 000 vehicle-per-year factory in the country. “We are not in the long run the exporter to Europe anymore.”

Instead, she said the company is likely to focus on selling fuel-powered cars locally and to other markets in Africa.

That position was echoed by Billy Tom, CEO of Isuzu’s South African unit.

“We mustn’t rush and let go what we have,” he said, adding that he expects internal combustion engine vehicles to dominate African demand for the next 20-50 years. “I don’t see big growth in Africa” for so-called new-energy vehicles, he said.

Biene is also president of the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers while Tom is president of South Africa’s National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers.

Poor sales

South Africa has also done little to develop a domestic market for the vehicles, the executives said.

The country has a poorly developed network of electric charging stations and imposes a 25% tax on electric vehicle imports, while some traditional cars don’t attract any levy.

Last year just 7 700 new energy vehicles were sold in South Africa, with 85% of those being hybrids, according to Tom. Total new vehicle sales in the year amounted to 532 000 and just under 400 000 were exported.

Read: V2G: two-way charging may be the next big thing in EVs

Still, Mike Whitfield, MD of Stellantis’s South African unit, said the company’s first South African factory, which is due to start up by the end of next year, may in the future produce new energy vehicles.

Both Biene and Tom stressed the potential of the African market ,with between three and five million second-hand vehicles imported into the continent annually. Those, they said, could be replaced by new vehicles that would be cheaper and cleaner to run. — (c) 2024 Bloomberg LP