While South Africa's electric vehicle industry lags behind many other countries, a team from Stellenbosch University wants to push the sector forward - starting with minibus taxis.

Amid the global race to electrify the transport sector - where SA seriously lags behind - it was a good day for Stellenbosch University's Faculty of Engineering last month when they successfully test-drove SA's first electric minibus taxi.

Their project, in partnership with Oxford University and Rham Equipment, and sponsored by the South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi), set out to prove that it is feasible to electrify taxis - given how they are used, and their potential impact on the grid - and that it is possible to retrofit an existing internal combustion engine (ICE), such as your normal petrol or diesel car, with an electric motor and battery.

MJ (Thinus) Booysen, the engineering professor at Stellenbosch University who supervised the project, said that along with finding ways to decarbonise the transport sector, "I'm hoping to build up the skills in the country by doing this, so that when we produce new electric vehicle, eventually, there is at least some skill set in the country. So this is for me, a stepping stone".

As Daily Maverick previously reported, while the world accelerates its transition to electric vehicles (EVs), with 14% of all cars sold worldwide...