Municipalities are known to operate large fleets to keep their operations going in several areas. A recent case study by the City of Cape Town’s transport department, in collaboration with, gives some very valuable insights into some of these operations and how they can be electrified. The report cites that the City of Cape Town has a total fleet size of 9,386 vehicles across various departments.
The pilot therefore zoned in on this area, using 5 BMW i3 hatchbacks and comparing them with the standard ICE vehicle in their fleet, the petrol-powered VW Golf 7 GTI. The City also deployed six EV charging stations to facilitate the charging requirements of the five BMW i3s. Two of the EV charging stations, located at Bellville Civic Centre and Somerset West Civic Centre, are solar-powered facilities.
The pilot used the only readily available BEV in this segment at the time, but the good news is there are now more BEV models available in south Africa now, or that will soon be offered there, which are in a comparable price range but now with a whole lot more range and much faster charging than these i3s.
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