South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has announced that a zero emission electric vehicles (ZEEV) will soon be introduced.

The programme that will birth the ZEE vehicles into the South African automobile market will be officially launched on Feb 26 by South Africa Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa.

According to a statement released by the department, the soon-to-be released environmental friendly automobile “seeks to ensure that South Africa practically contributes to the reduction of environmentally harmful gases by promoting the use of cleaner sources of fuel by the automotive industry.”

It says the Zero Emission Electric Vehicle (Ev) Programme is economically meant to ensure that South Africa keeps the pace of the technological developments in automotive manufacturing against her international counterparts.”

“This initiative will simultaneously address other global concerns such as energy security as oil wells are expected to dry up in the next 50 years.”

The DEA ZEEV, also known as DEA Green cars, is one of the practical outcomes of the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) hosted by South Africa recently.

One of its unique feature is that they are fully powered by solar energy, from a high-tech assembly of solar tracking panels, housed at the department’s head office, rather than power from the national grid.

The high-tech solar panels powering the vehicles generate enough electricity to power the fleet and feed back into the national grid, further incentivizing the move for other government departments and ordinary citizens to consider travelling green.

The DEA believes that a transition to electric vehicles in South Africa is one of the best solutions to cut down on CO2 emissions, in line with the aims of the National Climate Change Response policy and ensure implementation of the resolutions of many Climate Change conferences.

South Africa seeks to provide an environment that encourages the domestic automotive industry to prepare for transition into alternative propulsions systems operation and production.

DEA assured that government will roll out an effective consumer education and awareness campaign to popularise the uptake of the emission vehicles.

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