Why can't we build or own cars?
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A while back I was at my local spares shop to buy a brake disk, as the car I used to drive back then was known for “whopping” them after a while, and it was time for a replacement in anyway. The sales person had stock, and even offered me a choice between two. One produced locally, here in SA, and one imported.
This was an old car, no warranties and close to retirement anyway, and having a low income job, I asked which one was the cheapest, as they are, essentially the same thing. It turns out the one produced locally was three times more expensive. When asked why, a grim smile appeared on the salesperson’s face, and he said two simple words. “Proudly South-African”
It took me a while to figure out what he meant by this, and the answer came a few days later. It is the same reason why South Africa has not, in its own right, produced a car. We assemble them, export them, adapt them to our needs, but we do not have a brand unique to us.
China had a boom in recent years, producing and manufacturing its own cars for its own people, India has a finger in the industry, Korea, which produces wonderful cars, even Australia tried this market with a sub brand of car. What then is wrong with us? By no means let it be said it was not tried, a Cape town firm called Optimal Energy attempted a car way ahead of its time by creating the Joule, a fully electric car for the south African market, ahead of its time in the sense that the unveiling happened on the 2nf of October 2008, way before any electric cars became popular.
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Optimum Energy closed its doors in July 2012 after failing to find a suitable commercial partner, and any endeavours in the motoring industry, both public and private, was futile. Cost was to blame, as the cars were too expensive, much like the electric and hybrid cars today, but I want to think that is not really it.
The production cost is too high, and with everybody wanting to live like a king and not work for the money they get, politics with BEE, engineers and backers not willing to give away such a large percentage of their companies to investors, the amount of red tape making it almost impossible to start a multi-billion Rand industry, and the amount of corruption in the high circles. The government also wants a piece, as with the Joule, the development was partly funded by the department of science and technology, and forgotten about. It could have worked, and should have, despite the price. Implementation of a simple tax back scheme, or some form of subsidiary would have made this car blossom.
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Foreign investment is also dramatically down, and in this case extremely risky. Why would you put in millions in a country whose workforce goes on strike every few months, and still has to do research and development, when you can push that money into a similar market where all this is done, and you know you get your money back.
We, as a nation, can still thankfully build a car, for the future, just as green as the best can throw at us, by thinking more open minded, by truly becoming one as a nation, with a government that listens to its nation, funds its geniuses of tomorrow, has programs open to inspire youth not to be rich, but to give to the world, such as the likes of Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein or Henry Ford.
So, for now, as long as politics and commercialism plays a role, we must be only too thankful that the greater world offers its watered down products to us as an “undiscovered barbaric” nation who has not managed to successfully show, and remind the world we are the ones who invented the process for turning coal into oil. Oh, and let us not forget the CAT scan machine, and Q20
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