South African Innovator Creates Eco-Friendly Scooter

Fezile Dhlamini-Mapela, a South African industrial designer, came up with the idea for the Green Scooter seven years ago, in 2018.

Growing up in Johannesburg’s towns and suburbs, he was exposed to the nation’s inequality and apartheid-era regional planning.

This has left cities in South Africa vulnerable to urban sprawl and shoddy transportation systems even till now.

Though he never saw himself as an entrepreneur, at the age of 31, Fezile has already devoted a few years of his life to creating and producing electric transport and freight scooters built in South Africa.

He is the CEO and founder of “Green Scooter,” one of the first companies in South Africa to design, assemble, develop, and sell fully electrical scooters and EV powertrain components.

Green Scooter, which concentrates on energy management systems, battery packing, and electric powertrain technology, was the first company to introduce an electric motor-tricycle to South Africa.

Dhlamini is currently on a quest to procure African resources, such as lithium for batteries, in order to construct African electric vehicles (EVs).

He is determined to see EVs designed by and for Africans so that the resource-rich continent may fully participate in this new green chapter.

EV Mobility Challenge  in South Africa

The problems with power in South Africa are well known, and they are made worse by seemingly endless problems at the country’s electricity supplier, Eskom.

Despite this major problem, the country has electric vehicle (EV) startups that are actively engaged in sectors that are highly dependent on power.

The majority of EV mobility entrepreneurs have discovered though that power outage has both positive and negative effects on their companies.

On one hand, the lack of a consistent power supply has prompted widespread concern in the market about launching EV ventures.

On the other hand, the probability of continuous power outage has led to the installation of numerous renewable energy sources.

South Africa’s power problems have made it more difficult for EV companies to persuade customers to switch to electric vehicles.

According to the Energy for Growth Hub think tank, South Africa is the continent’s largest market for electric vehicles, yet in 2020, there were only 6,000 EVs on the road, accounting for less than 0.2% of all automobile sales in the nation.

This blackout issue is also a reason why there are no big EV manufacturers in Africa; instead, most of the production is done in countries like China, the US, and some regions of Europe.