I totally get your logic here, but I think that African countries are already unlikely to adopt EVs just on infrastructure alone…
The linked article mentions how SA is trying to install massive ships with gas power plants off the African coasts. If that’s the current state of electricity access, nobody who depends on a vehicle for their safety or livelihood is going to bring an EV into the African interior (for now).
So then, why is SA pushing more gas cars in the first place? That’s already what’s there - and given that many of these ICE cars are older imports with worse fuel economy, why try to replace them with newer ICE cars that might have to meet tighter emissions regulations and ultimately burn less fuel?
Whatever your take on ICE/EV adoption, this plan just seems like it never went beyond the marketing hype phase and certainly didn’t get a feasibility study 🤷
Really good point! I appreciate you linking that policy memo, I had never seen that!
That being said, I agree with another commenter that this policy seems to be demanding unreasonably expensive standards for cars on areas that have been making very clear which types of vehicles they prefer (that is, ones they can afford to purchase and maintain within their region/community). But this behavior is not new among Western countries - we sure love telling developing countries that they can’t use the low-cost, high-polluting tech we were using 50 years ago to jumpstart our own modern economies.