Britain will have to invest up to R590bn in the manufacture of electric-vehicle batteries by 2040, if it hopes to meet its demanding zero-emission automotive targets, says the Faraday Institution, the country’s flagship battery research programme.
Are these numbers relevant to SA? Certainly. For while the local motor industry is unlikely to attract that sort of money, it is a reminder of the ridiculous sums required for an all-electric future. Despite its zero-emission intentions, the UK motor industry shares many features with SA’s. Some years ago, it was one of the world’s biggest. Now, because of underinvestment and the emergence of low-cost industries in Asia and Eastern Europe, it is slipping down the table. In the past five years, says the Telegraph, annual production has slipped from 1.7-million to below 1-million.
A recent Financial Times report observed: “Although carmakers are agreed that developed areas where regulators are pushing hardest, such as Western Europe or China’s megacities, will become major electric markets in the space of a decade, they are sceptical that lower-income economies will keep pace.
Some industry executives are also not convinced that “green” vehicles are truly “green”, once supply chains and electricity generation are taken into account. Sceptics continue to argue that the environmental impact of mining for raw materials, and the carbon impact of international transport, outweigh the green advantages.
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