TC|Daily | Mercedes-Benz: 50% of our car sales in SA will be EVs by 2026

--:--
Despite the challenges in convincing South African drivers to ditch fossil fuel-powered vehicles for electric alternatives, Mercedes-Benz South Africa co-CEO Mark Raine predicts that more than half of the company’s car sales locally by the end of 2026 will be fully electric.
That’s just four years from now (plus a few months), yet Raine believes the South African luxury vehicle-buying market is ready for this massive shift. And he’s betting big on it, with Mercedes announcing four new EVs coming to local showrooms that it hopes will, umm, electrify fans of the badge.
Speaking on TC|Daily, TechCentral’s new technology show, Raine unpacked in an interview with Duncan McLeod what must happen in the coming years for EVs to take off in the same way they are expected to in markets like Europe and North America.
In the show, Raine chats about the state of the industry in South Africa following the Covid pandemic and last year’s riots in KwaZulu-Natal, as well as Mercedes’ investments locally, including in its flagship manufacturing plant in East London, which manufactures C-Class Mercedes-Benz vehicles for markets around the world.
In the show, Raine talks about:
• Why he believes the local market is ready to adopt EVs, despite concerns about load shedding, charging networks and range anxiety;
• Whether government is doing enough to encourage the uptake of EVs (spoiler: it’s not); and
• Whether we can expect Mercedes to build EVs in South Africa anytime soon.
He then takes TC|Daily viewers through the EV models that Mercedes is introducing in South Africa this year: the EQA, the EQB, the EQC and the top-of-the-line EQS.
If you haven't already subscribed to TechCentral's YouTube channel, please do so now. TC|Daily is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Pocket Casts.
13 Sep 2022 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS | From Namibian start-up to regional powerhouse: the rapid rise of Paratus

Paratus Group is rapidly emerging as a major player in the telecommunications industry in Southern Africa. But who’s behind Paratus, and what’s its history? From landing Google’s Equiano subsea cable in Swakopmund and building a new fibre route between South Africa and Namibia – providing a new data corridor between…
21 Mar 32 min

TCS Legends | Remembering Mustek founder David Kan

David Kan, the late founder and former CEO of Mustek, is the focus of episode 3 of TechCentral’s new podcast series, TCS Legends – powered by Mitel. In this episode, TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod is joined by Mustek CEO Hein Engelbrecht and Carlos Vizcarra, CEO of CPS Technologies, who was…
18 Mar 1 hr 20 min

TCS+ | CYBER1 Solutions on data and identity governance

Data and identity governance should be a top-of-mind issue for business leaders in 2024. CYBER1 Solutions MD Jayson O’Reilly and senior cybersecurity architect Christiaan Swanepoel share their insights on this important topic in this episode of TechCentral’s business technology show, TCS+. They kick off the discussion with a definition of…
13 Mar 58 min

TCS+ | How Workday solutions are helping supercharge Adcorp

Vinolia Singh, chief people officer at JSE-listed workplace solutions provider Adcorp, joins the second episode of a series of interviews about enterprise cloud software provider Workday. In this TCS+ interview, grouped under the theme of “change makers”, Singh is joined by Kiv Moodley, MD of Workday South Africa, to unpack…
12 Mar 34 min