The City of Cape Town is aiming to acquire 30 electric buses for the MyCiTi programme and is exploring the feasibility of electrifying other segments of its vehicle fleet, including waste collection trucks.
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Rob Quintas, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, said that the city plans to purchase the 12-metre-long buses as part of the MyCiTi Phase 2A expansion, which aims to connect Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain with Claremont and Wynberg.
The tender for the electric buses was issued by the Cape Town Urban Mobility Directorate last month and will close in mid-July.
The city plans to allocate R668 million for MyCiTi buses over the next three years, as part of a significant budget allocation for the programme in its 2024/25 budget, which was published last month.
Approximately R6.3 billion has been allocated for the MyCiTi south-east expansion over the next three years. The city has also set aside funds for its fare collection system and control centre.
Theresa Uys, the Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, stated that the City is examining the feasibility of electrifying other vehicles, including garbage trucks, light delivery vehicles, sedans, and hatchbacks.
Uys added that, in the long term, the city aims to transition its vehicle fleet to electric energy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Starting in 2020, the city conducted a pilot project in which it procured five fully electric BMW I3s for the Traffic Services Department. According to a report by GreenCape, a green-economy business support group, the Golf GTIs that these electric vehicles were to replace have an average annual mileage of 50 000 km.
According to News24, the electric vehicles were used significantly less than their internal combustion engine counterparts. In 2023, only one out of the four cars was used.
‘The decrease in mileages was due to operational changes; however, this did not impact the outcome of the pilot,’ said Uys.
The city still considers the pilot a success, demonstrating the economic viability of electric vehicles.
Electric buses are also planned for deployment in other parts of the country.
The Development Bank of South Africa is funding the deployment of 39 electric buses in Tshwane and eThekwini by the end of 2025. Although electric vehicles and hybrids still represent a small proportion of new car sales in South Africa, their sales are growing.
In 2023, these vehicles accounted for 1.45% of new car sales in South Africa, surpassing the 1% mark for the first time. Hybrid sales were more than seven times greater by volume than electric vehicle sales.
Significant investments have been made in South Africa’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure by companies such as Gridcars and Zero Carbon Charge.
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Picture: Misha Jordaan / Gallo Images