{"id":91136,"date":"2026-04-02T09:14:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/?p=91136"},"modified":"2026-04-02T10:41:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:41:06","slug":"south-africas-first-electric-highway-is-weeks-away-and-its-completely-off-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/south-africas-first-electric-highway-is-weeks-away-and-its-completely-off-grid\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s first electric highway is weeks away and it’s completely off-grid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two charging stations under construction on the N3 will make it possible to drive from Johannesburg to Durban on nothing but solar power by mid-May<\/a>. And the man behind them says they’ll be profitable from day one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Charge solar panels at Kopleegte on the N3 (Photo: Joubert Roux\/LinkedIn<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Joubert Roux, co-founder and executive chairman of Zero Carbon Charge, told The Outlier that a logistics company has already signed up to use half the energy the stations produce, before they’ve even switched on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal, with logistics integrator Zimi, covers 500 kilowatt hours per day per site<\/a>. That’s enough to make both stations cash-positive from inception, according to Roux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But getting here has been a four-year process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A proof of concept that survived 14 months of storms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zero Carbon Charge’s first station, at Wolmaransstad<\/a>, has been operating for 14 months. It was built as a technical proof of concept \u2014 chosen simply because it was the first site to get through the permitting process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The station has charged vehicles at up to 240 kilowatts, handled six vehicles simultaneously<\/a> and serviced heavy trucks. Roux says the hardware and the software have both performed as expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That experience gave the company the confidence to move to the N3 commercial sites. Equipment is already in transit: the chargers are in Durban harbour and the generators were delivered the day before we spoke to Roux (24 March 2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the numbers look like<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Each N3 station costs R16.5-million to build. Doubling capacity later costs another R6-million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every site has a 360-kilowatt charger feeding six dispensers, two 20-kilowatt AC chargers, a solar farm, battery storage and a backup generator. There is no grid connection, which means no exposure to load shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The break-even point is remarkably low. Roux says a site needs just four charging sessions per day to cover costs and seven per day for the company to be profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the energy is generated on-site from solar, the cost of producing each kilowatt hour after commissioning is minimal. Roux says Zero Carbon Charge fixes its price once a year, on 1 June, and holds it for 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solar panels the stations use carry a 35-year performance guarantee. “All that tells you is nobody knows how long they’re going to last but they’re going to last at least 35 years,” Roux says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road ahead: N1 by year-end, 60 sites in 18 months<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Roux’s next target is the N1, from Cape Town to Musina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the N1, the plan is to roll out 60 sites covering all national roads at 300-kilometre intervals. Roux says that can be done within 18 months. The network would then be densified to 150-kilometre intervals, after which he expects market demand will drive further expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says he already expects the two N3 sites will need their capacity doubled by the end of this year just to keep up with demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SANRAL bottleneck<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The biggest obstacle hasn’t been technology. It’s been permitting \u2014 and specifically, the South African National Roads Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roux says some of Zero Carbon Charge’s sites have been waiting more than 1,000 days for a comment from SANRAL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

638 stations to electrify Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Roux’s longer-term vision extends well beyond South Africa: he estimates it will take 638 off-grid charging stations to electrify all major transport corridors across the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commercial logic is being driven by trucks. Each heavy commercial vehicle consumes the equivalent energy of about nine passenger EVs. The moment Zero Carbon Charge announced its N3 plans, commercial off-takers approached the company, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Solar panels generating power for EV charging station at Wolmaransstad<\/a> (Photo: Charge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cross-border expansion is already in discussion. Botswana’s government has purchased 60 electric buses and 30 electric vehicles that Roux says are sitting in a yard outside Gaborone, waiting for charging infrastructure. Zero Carbon Charge is awaiting confirmation of a meeting with Botswana’s Minister of Energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trans-Kalahari Highway corridor, managed jointly by Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, running from Maputo to Walvis Bay, is also a target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roux draws a parallel to how mobile phones transformed Africa. “With cell phones, there were no fixed lines. So Africa went from no telephones to iPhones in one step. And I think microgrids \u2014 energy produced where it’s required, stored in batteries \u2014 is the future in Africa.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is based on an Outlier webinar interview with Joubert Roux conducted on 24 March 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[709,13,1409],"tags":[1443,421,1442],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-91136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-renewables","category-webinar","tag-ev","tag-solar","tag-zero-carbon-charge"],"acf":{"post_style":"bc","show_on_front":"Yes","link_through":"Yes","big_number":"","big_number_caption":"","big_number_link":"","big_number_background":"","big_number_text_colour":"#000000","big_number_icon":false,"big_number_wide":"yes","featured_chart":false,"flourish_chart_id":"","flourish_sub_title":"","flourish_chart_width":"medium","is_newsletter_post":"No","chart_url":"","background_colour":"#0089AA","text_colour":"#FFFFFF"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91136"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91144,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91136\/revisions\/91144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91136"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=91136"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=91136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}