Watts & Wheels

LDV South Africa isn't courting buyers whose fathers and grandfathers drove the same bakkie brand. CEO Gerhard Moolman wants the fleet owner replacing five vehicles who will try one LDV. Moolman, who took over in March after 23 years with Land Rover dealer groups, told Watts & Wheels' William Kelly that the brand's slow start since launching locally in 2024 has been written off. "What happened bef...

The company runs 125 chargers and wants a thousand within five years, focused on urban hubs. -- Rubicon’s public charging network is profitable and grew usage markedly in two months as fuel prices spiked, the company’s e-mobility head has told TechCentral’s Watts & Wheels. Hilton Musk said usage climbed roughly 30% in a single month, then another 30% the month after. “We thought it was a fluke,” h...

South Africa has still not crossed 1% of new vehicle sales going to electric vehicles, well short of the 5% mark at which adoption typically accelerates, The Electric Mission executive director Hiten Parmar told TechCentral’s Watts & Wheels with Wills. Parmar, who heads the non-profit advocacy body and co-founded the Southern African Electric Mobility Association, said the past three years have ch...

Winstone Jordaan was building charging infrastructure before South Africa had electric cars to plug into it. GridCars began developing its backend platform in 2010. The first EVs arrived in 2013. In this episode of Watts & Wheels with Wills, the GridCars founder tells William Kelly why the hardware was never the hard part. Working out where to put a charger and how much power to feed it is straigh...

Episode 8 of Watts & Wheels – TechCentral’s electric motoring show – opens with William Kelly on his soapbox, clipboard in hand, and a simple demand: keep left, pass right. Too many South African drivers, he argues, treat the left indicator as an invitation to be overtaken rather than a signal of intent, and lane discipline would save the country time, fuel and a great deal of frustration, he opin...

In the latest episode of Watts & Wheels with Wills, host William Kelly is joined in the studio by Greg Cress, automotive and e-mobility industry lead at Accenture South Africa, and Gary Scott of Scottify -- two of the longest-serving voices in South Africa's electric vehicle scene, and co-authors of a new guide to buying and owning an EV. The guide was born of the basic questions that keep surfaci...

Aeversa’s John Ford unpacks the rands-and-cents case for electric trucks in this first of a new interview series. TechCentral is proud to present the first episode of Watts & Wheels with Wills, our new interview show about electric vehicles and the fast-changing world of e-mobility in South Africa. In the debut episode, host William Kelly speaks to John Ford, sales manager at Aeversa, a fleet-focu...

Episode 7 of Watts & Wheels – TechCentral's electric motoring show – opens with mock outrage: the South African Car of the Year results are in, and the Alfa Romeo Junior didn't take the overall title. Hosts William Kelly and Duncan McLeod demand a recount – though they concede the Junior's best design win takes some of the sting out of a competition in which Chinese brands claimed half the categor...

Episode 6 of Watts & Wheels – TechCentral’s electric motoring show – sees hosts William Kelly and Duncan McLeod wade into the most opaque corner of the South African car market: tariffs, subsidies and what they really cost the people buying the cars. William opens with a deep dive into why locally sold vehicles are priced the way they are, unpacking the difference between SKD (semi-knocked-down) a...

After a few months away, Watts & Wheels returns for the fifth episode of season 1, with William Kelly in studio and Duncan McLeod dialling in from the Southern Cape. Watch episode 5 now In episode 5, William and Duncan dive into: • The new Suzuki Across, an entry-level SUV priced from R350 000 to R465 000 that squares up against Suzuki’s own Grand Vitara – and the welcome return of physical knobs...

The fourth episode of TechCentral’s electric motoring show, Watts & Wheels, covers a packed news agenda, two vehicle reviews and an in-depth look at the 2026 South African Car of the Year semi-finalists. The episode opens with the latest EV news, including fresh import duty statistics from Donald McKay of XA Global Trade Advisors and a closer look at BAIC’s claims of local manufacturing – with the...

TechCentral’s electric car show Watts & Wheels is back for episode 3 of season 1, and while EVs remain the focus, the conversation takes a detour into something far less planet-friendly – and far more jaw-dropping. Duncan McLeod and co-host William Kelly kick off by drooling over a wild new Toyota performance machine they say is real, street legal and due in 2027. It’s a 4l hybrid V8, rear-wheel d...

Chinese car makers continue their rapid push into the South African market, raising uncomfortable questions for incumbents. With aggressive pricing, fast product cycles and increasingly polished vehicles, the competitive landscape is shifting faster than many expected. There is also an update on Stellantis’s manufacturing plans and what they could mean for South Africa’s position in global automot...

TechCentral’s motoring show, Watts & Wheels, is officially back, with the first full episode of season 1 widening the lens beyond new cars to look at the forces reshaping South Africa’s automotive industry. The first episode of season 1 – you can catch our “season 0” episodes here – opens with a sharp focus on South African Auto Week, where the pressure on local vehicle manufacturers dominated dis...

The Dongfeng Box electric city runabout has landed in South Africa, and Watts & Wheels has taken the vehicle – one of the cheapest electric cars currently on sale in the country – for a test drive. One of China’s biggest and oldest motoring manufacturers, the state-owned Dongfeng Motor Corporation has identified South Africa as a key export market and, through E Auto Motor, has launched the brand...

Enviro Automotive has launched the Riddara RD6, South Africa’s first fully electric 4x4 bakkie – and Watts & Wheels has taken it for a test drive. In episode 2 of Watts & Wheels – the brand-new South Africa motoring show from TechCentral (subscribe on YouTube) – hosts William Kelly and Duncan McLeod throw the Riddara around some corners and chat with Enviro Automotive’s Francois Malan about why th...

This is Watts & Wheels, a new motoring show hosted by motoring journalist (and “buzzhead” – or is that “electronhead”?) William Kelly and TechCentral editor (and wannabe EV owner) Duncan McLeod. With a focus on the shift to electric motoring, the pilot season of Watts & Wheels consists of three episodes. The focus of the show is the “lived EV experience”, with the aim of helping “dispel some of th...