Haval has become the latest carmaker to announce an end-date for petrol and diesel vehicles.
BEIJINE – Great Wall Motor, with its Haval and GWM brands, has become a significant player in South Africa’s SUV and bakkie space, but buyers might soon need to get used to battery power.
According to international sources such as CarExpert and CarNewsChina, the Chinese carmaker announced at its new energy strategy conference in Beijing recently that it aimed to stop producing internal combustion models by 2030. In fact, by as soon as 2025 the company wants New Energy Vehicles (NEVs), to account for around 80% of its sales. This includes hybrid vehicles.
The move comes in response to the rapid growth of the NEV market in China, and the success of EV-focused brands such as BYD, and while it remains to be seen whether the ICE ban would apply to markets outside of China, the writing is certainly on the wall.
If the ICE ban were to be global it could have a negative effect on the South African operation, where Haval (including the GWM brand) sold a monthly average of more than 2,000 cars in the first quarter of this year. This is because the Chinese carmaker is luring buyers with its below-mainstream price tags.
Electric cars are of course expensive due to their large batteries and as a result it’s unlikely that the company would be able to match today’s prices in relative terms.
On the flipside, there are currently no affordable electric cars available in South Africa, and there is certainly an opportunity to shake that status quo by introducing lower-priced EVs to the local market.
IOL Motoring
