South Africa's EV market is still small. Naamsa recorded 1,088 units sold in 2025, down from 1,257 in 2024, though that count excludes Chinese brands like BYD, Geely and Dongfeng, who don't report to Naamsa. Real models on sale here now include BYD's Dolphin Surf, Sealion 7, Atto 3, Dolphin and Seal (the Dolphin Surf starts at R341,990), alongside Naamsa-reporting brands like Volvo's EX30. Whichever you're looking at, the electrical side of owning one matters before the charger side does.
What actually plugs in
There are three real tiers of home charging sold in South Africa, and the power difference between them is large:
Figures from real SA-market chargers: a Suntree portable unit (8-16A, 1.8-3.7kW, ~R4,890), a Zencar wallbox (7.4kW, ~R9,980 installed) and a Victron three-phase unit (22kW, ~R10,395 unit only), plus GridCars' Enelion Lumina wallbox (up to 22kW / 32A). Source: MyBroadband, GridCars.
Whether your supply can actually take it
This is the part that catches people out. A dedicated 7.4kW or 22kW wallbox is a serious draw on a home's supply, and it has to share that supply with everything else in the house. The City of Cape Town's own connection documentation specifies standard residential connections at 60A or 80A single-phase, with larger properties or other categories going up to 100A three-phase. Whether your existing connection and distribution board can take a wallbox alongside your geyser, stove and everything else is exactly the kind of thing worth checking before you order one, not after.
Charging away from home
South Africa has two real public charging networks worth knowing. GridCars, founded in 2009, is the largest, with over 350 public stations on its network via the "Charge Pocket" app. Rubicon is second, with 123 public stations plus 20 more at dealership partners as of December 2025, via its "Rubicon Charge" app.
What happens when the power goes out
A standard grid-tied home charger, like anything else in the house, goes offline when the supply does, whether that's load shedding or a local fault. A solar-and-battery system can keep a car charging through an outage, provided there's enough stored or generated power at the time, and most EVs sold here support scheduled charging so you can set it to run in a specific window rather than whenever it feels like it.
The paperwork
Installing a home charger, like any electrical work, needs a Certificate of Compliance from a registered electrical contractor. The Department of Employment and Labour is clear that any electrical installation has to comply with the Electrical Installation Regulations and be certified. Read more on what that certificate actually covers in The Two-Year Certificate Myth.
Prices and product specs current as sourced above. Always confirm against the supplier before buying.