Sunday, May 21, 2017

The most fuel efficient cars in South Africa right now

The most fuel efficient cars in South Africa right now
Business Tech gives a run down on the most economical new cars on the market with information sourced from Bloombergs April global fuel price index report. Not surprisingly the list is populated mostly by hybrid powered cars and headed of course by the all electric Nissan Leaf.

Strangely the BMW i3 is only third on the list and is given a fuel consumption of 2.1L/100km. I can only presume they are quoting figures from the range extender i3 REX model which has a small petrol generator to keep the battery topped up. The fully electric i3 like the Leaf has a fuel consumption of 0L/100km.
The index measures “affordability” as the cost of a litre of petrol relative to a country’s average daily wage, while overall spend represents how much the average driver spends on petrol in a year, relative to the average salary. According to the 2016 index, South Africa is ranked last – spending the highest proportion of the average salary on petrol in a year.

These statistics should make it clear that personal motorised transport is very expensive for South Africans. With electric vehicles these running costs would be reduced by at least 80%. It makes sense to drive an electric car in this country. Manufacturers not offering their fully electric or plug-in hybrid models yet in this country need to start making them available to South Africans and they need to work together to create sufficient charging infrastructure.

When Tesla arrive in South Africa with their all electric Model 3 within the next couple of years, they will also put up their own network of Supercharger fast chargers and destination chargers. The present car manufacturers with a presence in the country need to prepare themselves in time.

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