
New appointment at Dunlop Tyres South Africa
Dunlop Tyres South Africa has announced the appointment of Thuli Gasa as Head of Corporate Services, serving as a full member of the Executive Committee.
- Industry News
- 31 May 2025
On 26 April, Reuters reported that according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) nearly one in five cars sold globally this year will be electric.
According to the same report, the prices of smaller EV models will also be dropping to rival those of combustion engine cars in North America and Europe by the mid-2020s.
The agency raised its EV sales forecasts in part because of the US Inflation Reduction Act, which supports green industry and subsidises consumers' buying electric vehicles (EVs), IEA executive director, Fatih Birol, said on a media call.
China features prominently, making up half the EVs on the road worldwide, including battery-electric cars and plug-in hybrids, and with 60% of EV sales taking place there last year, according to the IEA's annual outlook on EVs.
The country has also seen prices for some smaller EV models edging lower towards those of their combustion engine equivalents, said the IEA's energy technology policy head, Timar Guell.
Electric car sales globally are expected to surge by 35% this year to 14 million units, the report said, comprising 18% of the passenger car market, up from just 4% in 2020.
"Our current expectation is that we can see price parity in small and medium-sized electric cars in North America and European markets somewhere in the mid-2020s... for larger cars like SUVs and pick-ups, purchasing parity is likely to come later, probably into the 2030s," Guell said.
Governments are investing in EV expansion out of concerns over the environment, to boost industrial policy and decrease dependency on oil, demand for which will fall by 5 million barrels a day by 2030 because of the EV transition, Birol said.
SUVs and large cars account for nearly two-thirds of EVs in China and Europe and a greater proportion in the United States.
In emerging and developing economies, two- and three-wheel electric vehicles outnumber cars. Over half of India's three-wheeler registrations in 2022 were electric, according to the study.
Zero Carbon Charge (CHARGE), South Africa’s first company to pioneer a national network of off-grid, solar-powered ultra-fast electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, announced a R100 million equity investment from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
The new Volvo XC70 mid-size SUV is Volvo Cars’ first extended-range plug-in hybrid. It provides a pure electric range of up to 200 kilometres, making it Volvo Cars’ longest-range plug-in hybrid to date.
A shift towards an electric vehicle landscape in South Africa will get another boost with the soon-to-be released Geely Riddara double cab 4x4 and 4x2 bakkies locally by Enviro Automotive.