JOHANNESBURG : South Africa needs to regulate swiftly to spur demand for electric vehicles (EVs), the co-CEO of the local unit of Mercedes-Benz said on Wednesday, as the country's automotive industry risks being irrelevant to the global market.
The luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz exports 90 per cent of its total South African output, primarily to Europe, which plans to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035.
"The train is a global one, and it's leaving the station. If South Africa doesn't jump onto the train, it runs the risk of being left behind," Mark Raine, co-CEO Mercedes-Benz Cars South Africa, told Reuters in an interview. Specifically, South Africa will need to boost local demand by cutting the import tax for EVs, setting up large-scale EV charging stations and investing in skills needed for the new ecosystem that EVs bring, he said.
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