<
https://theconversation.com/electric-vehicles-in-africa-whats-needed-to-grow-the-sector-236818>
"In sub-Saharan Africa, high levels of particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution
from vehicle tailpipe emissions cause poor health, developmental stunting, and
even death. Vehicle emissions also contribute to global warming.
Electric vehicles could help solve these problems but they’ve been slow to take
off in the region. Its biggest economy, South Africa, had only about 1,000
electric vehicles by 2022.
We are specialist transport engineers whose research has focused on electric
vehicles and road freight transport in sub-Saharan Africa. In our work we look
at how electric vehicles could contribute to reducing emissions in the region,
and what is standing in the way of electrifying transport.
One of the reasons for low uptake is the high cost of electric vehicles. They
also have limited range and their batteries are slow to charge: a problem for
long distance or frequent driving.
The inability of countries to generate and distribute enough clean electricity
is also a barrier to electrifying vehicles. Just over half of all electricity
in the region comes from burning fossil fuels. Powering electric vehicles with
electricity generated by burning fossil fuels wouldn’t necessarily reduce
carbon emissions.
However, the rollout of electric motorcycles and small public transport
vehicles has already begun. If all vehicles could be made locally, using clean
energy, there would be tremendous economic benefits for the region."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
