GRIDCARS is a South African developer of electric vehicle charge-point software management systems and supplier of charge points. In September 2017, Solareff (part of Alviva Holdings) expanded into green mobility through the acquisition of a 75,0% stake in GridCars, who are the dominant force in South African EV charging. At the end of 2018 GridCars, in partnership with Jaguar, deployed 82 public charging stations nationwide.
Since then, through their partnerships with various players in the industry, including OEMs, GridCars has effectively grown the national charge point network. Their most recent partnership with Audi includes four 150kW DC super-charging stations as part of a national roll-out of 70 new EV charge connectors across 33 sites. GridCars have installed public charging stations at various points of convenience in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, and Bloemfontein, and have connected South Africa’s city centres through their national charging network – a series of charging stations along the N3 between Gauteng and Durban and the N1 between Gauteng and Cape Town. Cape Town is also connected to the Garden Route with a series of charging stations along the N2, all the way to East London. This extensive national network of EV fast-chargers has been a game changer for EV drivers as it makes long-distance travel possible within South Africa, as evidenced by the success of the eXpedition to Formula E 2023 Cape Town E-Prix, all participants combined covered almost 60 000km of EV driving!
The impact of Loadshedding
Despite South Africa’s ongoing electricity supply challenges, the country’s EV revolution is gaining momentum with various OEMs introducing all-electric model ranges to their South African product offerings. The country was in the grips of stage 4 and stage 6 loadshedding while the EV drivers were participating in the GridCars EV eXpedition to Formula E 2023 Cape Town E-Prix, however, the impact was fairly minimal with all drivers successfully making the journey – testament to the robustness of the EV charging network and the diligent work of the dedicated GridCars support team who were available 24/7 to provide assistance to drivers along the route if they experience any issues while charging.
Customer service is a key factor in GridCars’ success and if a driver encounters a problem at any of their charge points, they can call the support team on +27 10 109 3344 or WhatsApp GridCars eMobility on +27 60 070 2372 for assistance. “We have a passionate community of EV drivers in South Africa, many of whom have been driving EVs for several years and have become ambassadors of the EV lifestyle. The public are very interested in EVs, when stopping at a charging station we are frequently asked questions about the technology and inevitably the loadshedding question comes up” says Jordaan, “but the reality is that our EV drivers aren’t impacted very much at all! The majority of EV charging takes places overnight where the EV driver has plugged in at home, even with a 2 – 4 hour loadshedding block the EV will still be fully charged in the morning. Many of the EV charge stations on our GridCars national charging network have back-up generators or solar PV and batteries, allowing them to continue to function during loadshedding. For the charge stations that don’t have back-up power, the EV driver can choose to either wait for that loadshedding block to end, or they can simply to drive to a charge station that is located in a nearby area which is not experiencing loadshedding at that time.”
How to find EV Charge Stations
GridCars ChargePocket members utilise the ChargePocket webapp to locate their nearest charging station and to managing their accounts. As GridCars are the first EV charging stations in Africa to be included on the Google Maps platform, members of the public can utilise Google maps to locate over 350 charge points on the GridCars national network. A quick Google search for “GridCars charging stations” will display the location of our nearest charging stations with detailed directions and navigation available directly within Google Maps.
For more information visit www.gridcars.co.za
