Holiday Fun! Taking A 32kWh MINI Cooper SE On A 962km Road Trip From Johannesburg To Afriski Resort In Lesotho And Back

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South Africa’s charging community is rising on a regular basis. EV drivers can now comfortably do highway journeys alongside a lot of the nation’s main highways. Drivers can now additionally do highway tricks to resorts in neighbouring international locations comparable to Lesotho. To showcase this, Ryan Jarret not too long ago took a visit from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Afriski Mountain Resort in Lesotho. Afriski is the one ski resort in Southern Africa. Ryan’s electrical automotive is a 2022 MINI Cooper SE with a 32kWh gross, 28kWh usable vitality battery pack. It has a mileage of 66,000 km (41,000 miles). The spherical journey from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Afriski in Lesotho was 962 km (598 miles) and the typical vitality consumption for his journey was 15.9 kWh/100 km.

Here’s a abstract of the charging stops:

1. On the 60kW DC charging station at Engen 1-Cease

• Vaal West (Villiers)
• 22.10 kWh recharged, as much as 95% SoC
• Value of R162.50 ($9.20 USD)
• Whole cost time — 36 min

2. On the 50kW DC charging station at Engen 1-Cease

• Bergview (Harrismith)
• 29.41 kWh recharged, as much as 97% SoC
• Value of R216.25 ($12.24 USD)
• Whole cost time — 47 min

3. On the 22kW AC charging station at Protea Resort Clarens.

• Clarence
• 20.99 kWh recharged
• Value of R 123.48 ($6.99 USD)
• Whole cost time — 2 hours and 6 min

4. On the 50kW DC quick charging station at Dihlabeng Mall.

• Bethlehem
• 19.10 kWh recharged, as much as 99% SoC
• Value of R 133.67 ($7.57 USD)
• Whole cost time — 47 min

5. On the 60kW DC quick charging station at Engen 1-Cease

• Vaal West (Villiers)
• 21.66 kWh recharged, as much as 90% SoC
• Value of R159.26 ($9.02 USD)
• Whole cost time — 31 min

There was additionally a cost session via the night time and a bit extra for 13–14 hours within the chilly at 2.4 kW from a typical wall socket on the ski resort.

Here is a cool video from Ryan documenting his trip:

I like a majority of these journeys that doc how straightforward it’s to take well-liked highway journeys which can be about 1,000 km spherical journey in fashionable electrical autos. By fashionable requirements, the MINI is a short-range EV, and due to this fact this journey exhibits that with principally some other EV that can be purchased in South Africa for the time being, which may have a spread of no less than double the vary of the 2022 MINI, these highway journeys shall be even higher.

Within the first 6 months of this 12 months, 749 battery electrical autos (BEVs) have been bought in South Africa. A complete of 931 BEVs have been bought in the entire of 2023, that means that the full variety of BEVs bought within the first six months of 2024 was 80% of the full for the entire of the earlier 12 months. That is very encouraging, as gross sales of BEVs have been fairly sluggish in South Africa over the previous 5 years or so. The sluggish gross sales of BEVs may be attributed to a number of causes, together with:

1. A restricted variety of fashions obtainable in South Africa in comparison with related markets. The vary of BEVs provided in South Africa is bettering, which provides us hope for the longer term.
2. Excessive import duties and taxes relevant to electrical autos in South Africa. Petrol and diesel autos imported from the EU into South Africa have a customs obligation of 18%, whereas for electrical autos it’s 25%. There are additionally the Advert Valorem Customs Excise Duties and VAT.

There may be speak of introducing some type of incentives for EVs in South Africa. We hope this occurs quickly! As extra EV fashions grow to be obtainable in South Africa, in addition to a rising variety of extra reasonably priced EVs coming onto the market, it is vitally vital to boost consciousness round all points referring to EVs in South Africa to catalyse adoption. These sorts of journeys will go an extended away in elevating consciousness.

Photographs courtesy of Ryan Jarret