Can You Really Live With an EV in South Africa Today? I Tried It
- BY MUFARO MHARIWA
- 2 minutes ago
- 12 min read
When the news of the latest fuel price increases broke, it didn’t matter what you were doing or where you were. You heard about it. Whether it was on the news, in newspapers, or buried somewhere between TikTok scrolls, it found you. That’s the reality of transportation in South Africa. It affects everyone.
Personally, I don’t own a car, so the news didn’t hit me immediately. But then it clicked. If fuel goes up, e-hailing prices follow. And suddenly, something that felt distant becomes very real. This isn’t just about drivers. It’s about anyone who moves.
My stance on EVs has always been simple: why not?
You have petrolheads who will always want their engines and exhaust notes. Then there are those who don’t see EVs often enough to even consider them. Others simply don’t know enough about them. But having driven one before, I always found myself wondering why more people weren’t making the switch.
Yes, charging infrastructure is still a concern, but even that felt manageable. A slow charger at home, a bit of planning, and you could make it work. What I had not experienced properly, until now, was what it actually feels like to live with an EV.
Spending more time with the Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce made one thing very clear. This is not just a different way of driving. It is a different way of living. And in many ways, a better one.
Why EVs Are Still Misunderstood
Before spending proper time with an EV, I expected to encounter strong opinions. People dismissing them, criticising them, or comparing them to traditional cars. In reality, that wasn’t the case at all. What I found instead was a lack of familiarity.
Take my uncle, for example. He has always owned cars with proper engines. Big, powerful, family-ready machines. Think along the lines of a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and not just the standard versions either. At one point he even had a V12-powered model. For someone like him, EVs were never really in the conversation. Not because he disliked them, but because at his price point and with a family of five, the options simply do not align.
Then there is my father, whose perspective was completely different. He knew EVs existed, but that was about it. How they worked, how they charged, what they cost to run, all of that was unfamiliar territory. When I plugged the Alfa in overnight and told him it cost roughly R150 in electricity to charge, there was genuine surprise.
The barrier to EV adoption, at least in my experience, is not resistance. It is understanding.
Most people are not against EVs. They just have not spent enough time around them to see how they fit into real life. Once you do, the conversation shifts quickly from “why would you?” to “wait, how does that actually work?”
Charging Isn’t the Problem You Think It Is
One of the biggest misconceptions around EV ownership is that charging is this constant, inconvenient task. Something you have to plan your day around. In reality, it becomes the opposite.
During my time with the Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce, most of my charging happened at Woodmead Retail Park. Not because I had to go there specifically, but because it naturally fit into my routine. I also charged once at home and once at a BMW office, where charging was completely free.
Across the week, I charged roughly three times. That may sound like a lot, but it is worth noting that I was driving more than the average person would, purely because I was reviewing the car.
What stood out most was that I rarely felt like I was going out of my way to charge. At one point, I wanted to grab lunch, and instead of thinking, “where do I want to eat?”, the thought became, “where can I eat and charge?” It is a subtle shift, but an important one. Charging becomes something you do while living your life, not something you stop your life to do.
That said, I did see how it could feel like a mission if you are unprepared. I met a couple trying to charge their hybrid BYD at a station that was not working. They had already come from another offline charger. The frustration was clear. But after speaking to them, it turned out they were unaware of apps and platforms that show charger availability in real time. And that knowledge makes a difference.
For me, charging was predictable. About 30 minutes would get the battery to 80% from 20%, which is the sweet spot before charging slows down. Most of my sessions lasted around 45 minutes, usually while I was eating or shopping. By the time I was done, so was the car.
Yes, filling up a petrol car takes five minutes. But you still have to stop what you are doing to do it. With an EV, you build charging into your day. The same way you plug in your phone while working, eating or relaxing, you start to treat your car the same way.
The Unexpected Economics of Going Electric
If there is one area where EVs stop being a debate and start becoming a reality, it is cost. We often talk about electricity being cheaper than fuel, but that conversation usually stays theoretical. Spend a week living with an EV, and it becomes very practical, very quickly.
What stood out to me most was not just how much cheaper charging can be, but how predictable it feels compared to fuel. With petrol and diesel prices constantly shifting, sometimes dramatically, you are always reacting. With electricity, especially when you know where and how to charge, you are in control.
And sometimes, you are not paying at all.
I was at a BMW office for a meeting when this point really came to life. The PR manager I was speaking to mentioned that she would not consider an EV because she lives in an apartment. That is a fair concern. Without a dedicated parking space to install a home charger, ownership becomes more complicated.
But here is the twist. She works at a place where charging is free. In theory, she is the perfect EV owner. In practice, the uncertainty of relying on that setup long-term makes it a tougher decision. If that access disappears, the equation changes.
Right after that conversation, I walked out to unplug the Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce and saw a striking green BMW i4 pull up next to me.
The driver, an older gentleman, struck up a conversation. His son had bought him the car, and he now uses it for Uber Black.
What he said next reframes the entire EV conversation.
“This is a life hack,” he told me.
He charges the car for free at BMW facilities, typically once every two days, in between trips. Every ride he completes is effectively pure profit. No fuel costs eating into his margins, just earnings.
In a country where fuel prices can jump by several rand per litre in a single month, that is not just convenient. It is a business advantage.
It also raises a bigger point. The presence of free or low-cost charging changes everything. For someone looking to get into e-hailing, an EV is no longer just an environmental choice. It becomes a financial strategy. Your biggest running cost disappears, and suddenly the model shifts from covering expenses to maximising profit.
Even outside of that scenario, the value proposition is hard to ignore. As someone who lives in an apartment myself, I initially saw that as a limitation. But after this experience, it feels more like a hurdle than a dealbreaker. Charging once or twice at a mall during the week is not nearly as inconvenient as it sounds, especially when you are already there.
There is another angle too. EVs depreciate heavily, which is not great for first owners, but opens the door for buyers entering the market. For someone like me, that changes the equation entirely. Lower purchase price, significantly lower running costs, and a lifestyle that is easier to adapt to than expected.
The more time you spend around EVs, the more you realise this is not just about saving money; it is about changing how money is spent altogether.
The Mental Shift That Changes Everything
To be completely honest, range anxiety was not something I really experienced during this week. But there is a simple reason for that: I never pushed the car into a true long-distance scenario.
That in itself is part of the reality of EV ownership in South Africa right now. Urban driving is where they make the most sense. Road trips, at least for now, still require more planning and confidence than most people are used to.
During the week, I stayed largely within city use. And because of that, I always knew I had options. Between selected malls, office charging points, and BMW fast chargers, there was always a fallback plan if needed.
At one point, I was sitting on 26 percent battery with roughly 76 km of range remaining, and I genuinely still felt comfortable continuing to drive without stress. In a city environment, that is more than enough to carry on for another full day of normal use.
Planning did feel slightly restrictive at times, but only in the early stages. The moment you start thinking of charging as part of your routine rather than an emergency stop, that feeling starts to disappear.
And that is the real shift. Range anxiety does not vanish because the car suddenly has more range. It disappears because your mindset changes. You stop looking at EVs as machines you need to “refuel” and start looking at them as something that fits into a broader lifestyle system.
What the Data Actually Says
Over the course of 16 urban trips, covering a combined distance of 370 km, the EV settled into a real-world average consumption of 16.9 kWh/100km. That figure reflects a mix of driving conditions, from light urban cruising to heavier traffic, with the occasional more spirited burst mixed in.
In total, the car used approximately 62.5 kWh of energy. Using a deliberately exxaggerated electricity rate of R3.00/kWh, that translates to R187.50 worth of driving. At a more realistic household rate of around R2.50/kWh, the cost drops closer to R156.
Put simply, this EV delivered a real-world running cost of between R0.42 and R0.51 per kilometre.
To put that into perspective, a comparable petrol-powered hatchback returning 6.5L/100km would have cost just over R640 to cover the same distance. A larger SUV at 8.5L/100km pushes that figure to nearly R840. Diesel offers little relief, sitting at just over R830 for the same distance.
Even when working with inflated electricity costs, the EV remains comfortably at around a quarter of the running cost of its internal combustion equivalents.
What stands out most is not just the efficiency, but the consistency. Across varied conditions, consumption remained stable and predictable. Real-world EV ownership, at least in this context, is not only viable. It is financially compelling.
EV | Efficient Petrol | SUV Petrol | Diesel | |
Distance travelled | 370 | 370 | 370 | 370 |
Energy/ Fuel Used | 62.5 kWh | 25 L | 31. 4 L | 25.9 L |
Total Cost (at R2.50 kWh) | R156 | R640 | R837 | R831 |
Total Cost (at R3/kWh) | R187 | — | — | — |
*at the average rate of electricity costs, you would pay R156 to travel 370km
*at an exaggerated rate, you would pay R187 to travel 370km
Lifestyle Shifts You Don’t Expect
In reality, I only started thinking differently about my day when the battery dipped closer to 20%.
At around 60%, nothing changes. You go about your life as normal. But once it drops to that lower bracket, your thinking naturally shifts. You start making small mental notes like, “I should probably pass by somewhere with a charger later,” or if you already have errands planned, you begin to prioritise locations where charging is available.
But that is an important distinction, this was my experience, and I actually enjoyed it. A more typical EV owner would likely never even think this way most of the time. The typical EV owner would simply charge at home overnight, topping up the battery so the car is always ready each morning. That alone removes almost all daily planning stress.
There is also a driving behaviour shift that creeps in over time. I found myself constantly using regenerative braking, which in the Junior is not quite full one-pedal driving, but still strong enough that lifting off the accelerator begins to slow the car while recovering energy. In heavy traffic especially, it makes driving noticeably more relaxed. Less braking, less effort, more flow.
And strangely, that is something you start to miss when you get back into a traditional internal combustion car.
Where EVs Still Fall Short
In my case, there were no dramatic limitations during the week, but there is an important caveat: I did not live with the car long enough to truly push it into every possible scenario.
The bigger reality is infrastructure.
Based in Midrand, I had access to a fair number of charging points, which made ownership feel relatively seamless. But I can easily see how that experience changes depending on where you live. In areas like Kempton Park, for example, if home charging is not an option and your day does not naturally take you past a charger, things become more complicated.
Even then, many of the available chargers in those areas are not truly “public” in the traditional sense. And if the few accessible public chargers happen to be offline, your options shrink quickly, sometimes leaving you with places like airport charging as a fallback rather than convenience.
That is where EV ownership in South Africa still demands a level of awareness and selectivity. It is not just about having a charger nearby, but knowing which ones actually work, and planning around that.
It is also important to be realistic about use case. The Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce is, at its core, an urban-focused EV. It is not designed for long-distance out-of-town trips in its current form, and trying to stretch it into that role would be unnecessary stress rather than practical ownership.
That said, one clear conclusion emerged from the week: EV ownership makes the most sense when it forms part of a broader household ecosystem.
A daily EV paired with an internal combustion vehicle for longer trips creates a very balanced setup. One handles efficiency and city life, the other handles distance and flexibility.
As a first and only car in a household with no charging access, it still feels like a stretch. But as a personal daily driver with the right infrastructure around it, the experience becomes not just workable, but genuinely compelling.
For me personally? Give me that car in the right setup, and it would easily be one of the most enjoyable daily driving experiences I have had.
Especially in the form of the Junior Veloce.
Living With the Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce
Having spent a day with it previously last year, I already knew the Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce was a fun car. But living with it for a full week takes that feeling and multiplies it. It stops being a test vehicle and becomes something you genuinely look forward to using.
I never once minded longer trips to work events or the constant back-and-forth runs, even small errands like picking up my brother from school. In fact, I found myself doing the opposite of what you’d expect; choosing the longer route to the shops simply because it meant more time behind the wheel.
Electric performance brings the obvious instant torque, but the Veloce takes it further. With its limited-slip differential and performance-focused setup, it encourages you to actually drive it properly. You can accelerate into a corner, power out of it, and it just responds with confidence. No exhaust noise, no theatrics, no artificial drama; just a quiet, slightly mischievous grin forming on your face.
It is not a crossover in the traditional sense. It behaves more like a hot hatch that happens to sit a bit higher. Comfort is not its strongest suit, and honestly, it does not try to be. And in this case, it does not matter. The engagement replaces comfort.
Regenerative braking also deserves more credit than it usually gets. In urban driving, it makes everything smoother and more relaxed. Less effort, less constant braking, more flow.
There is a limitation, though, and it is a practical one. This is not the ideal daily car for a large family. You can get away with one child in the back, but beyond that, space becomes a real compromise. And then there is the price, starting at R799 900. But even with those realities, the experience is strong enough that you start forgiving things you normally would not.
At a price of R999 900, the Veloce would not be the smart buy. But it would absolutely be a great buy.
The Case for Going Electric, Right Now
EV ownership in South Africa is already viable, but it is not universal. It depends entirely on where you live and how you live.
In my case, living in Midrand and operating independently, it is something I could realistically adopt without major friction. Even without a house setup, the combination of workplace charging, mall infrastructure, and planned stops makes it completely workable.
For families, it still works, just with more structure. Larger EVs such as the Volvo ES90 show that range and space are no longer the biggest barriers. With close to 700 km of claimed range and proper interior practicality, even moderately planned road trips become realistic rather than theoretical. Add home charging into the equation, and public infrastructure becomes a backup rather than a requirement.
Personally, I would buy an EV as a first car. Not because it is perfect, but because in my use case it fits.
But that is the key point; it fits my use case. It will not fit everyone’s.
What has changed recently, however, is perception. With fuel price increases continuing to rise sharply, EVs are no longer just an “interesting alternative” or future-facing concept. They are becoming a very real consideration for people who previously would never have entertained them.
