Eleksa is currently the retail arm of the business and Electric Vehicle Investors (EVI) is the importer and distributor. EVI also takes care of local regulations and homologation, as required.

We have a growing number of investors that have also opened their own Eleksa branches. Currently, more than five branches actively sell vehicles.

Our passion is EVs of all types, but our specific focus is on smaller, lower-cost vehicles.

What products do you currently offer to the domestic market? Who are your biggest clients? We offer mostly commercial-sector vehicles. These are scooters and quads for the security and leisure industries, three-wheel scooter bakkies (the Impi) for farmers, as well products for the delivery and hospitality industries.

We also provide mobility vehicles for the elderly or disabled. For private individuals, we offer GoKarts, scooters, mobility vehicles and electric bikes.

Our biggest market is security companies and farmers of all types. We are also seeing that more and more retail businesses are buying electric delivery vehicles.

Your newest addition is the CityBug. Tell us a little bit about this vehicle. We imported a small electric bakkie from China a few years ago, called the Pickman. This project wasn’t successful, but we learned from that experience.

After the Pickman bakkie, we went searching for a small car or bakkie that was fully compliant to international standards and already homologated overseas.

When we found the G-EEC [CityBug], we contacted the supplier in China and the distributor in the UK.

Since the vehicle is fully homologated in right-hand-drive configuration in the UK, we knew that the G-EEC (called the Saturn CityBug in the UK) was a viable option.

R200 000 is fairly inexpensive for a new EV, but what do you think will make people buy this car over a used vehicle? We have many retired customers using our mobility vehicles. However, some people prefer a bigger vehicle like a golf-cart, but since a golf-cart is not road legal, its use is limited.

The CityBug will provide an easy and low-running-cost solution for many journeys in retirement villages, as well as out to shops and into town.

The passion we see from our customers for EVs gives us confidence that this vehicle will be a success.

We also have a number of businesses interested in using the CityBug as a delivery vehicle, security vehicle, short-range people transporter and so forth.

The interest from early adopters and enthusiasts is a wildcard that may, or may not, turn into sales.

Has the CityBug been homologated for the South African market?
We do all our imports in full compliance and with approvalf rom the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS). The vehicle will only be allowed on the road after final inspection by the NRCS.