BMW SA CEO Peter van Binsbergen in the body shop at the BMW plant in Rosslyn, north of Pretoria. Picture: ALAISTER RUSSELL
Last week, Renai Moothilal, director of the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers , told a conference that urgent action is needed to halt the industry’s “stagnation”. Unlike MBSA, which exports all its hybrids, BMW SA CEO Peter van Binsbergen said his company’s X3 hybrids will be available in SA, along with petrol and diesel models.
In particular, they want the government to offer consumers the kind of price incentives that have kick-started EV demand in other countries. Trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel has said bluntly that such a plan is unaffordable. A policy white paper on new-energy vehicles, which also encompass hydrogen and other forms of emissions-free automotive power, should have been published in 2021 but is now expected only in 2024.
Naamsa CEO Mikel Mabasa also welcomed the BMW SA investment but said it doesn’t alter the fact that policy inactivity is muddying the local industry’s future. He told a Tshwane auto investment conference that the department of trade, industry & competition lacks the capacity and knowledge to move faster.