South African drivers looking for a fully-electric vehicle (EV) can buy one of several cars for less than a million rand.

When it comes to the cheapest electrically-powered vehicles in South Africa, there are even some options available for under R500,000.

These include EV Africa’s small City Blitz hatchback, priced from R199,900, and the bakkie-like Eleksa Pony, which starts at roughly R387,000.

The City Blitz offers a small 7.5kW electric motor that tops out at a maximum speed of 80km/h, while the Pony’s puny 5kW electric motor only allows it to go up to 70km/h.

Their respective 10kWh and 7.2kWh battery packs provide claimed ranges of up to 160km and 110km.

However, given their low power figures, it’s arguable whether the City Blitz or Pony could be considered fully-fledged cars.

The City Blitz is not even approved for driving on South African highways — a major limiting factor for motorists.

The previous cheapest EV in South Africa — the fully road-legal BMW i3 — offers much better specifications than these models.

We found a used 2015 BMW i3 available on Cars.co.za for R399,900 with 101,000km on the odometer.

While that mileage would have some concerned about the remaining battery life, it might not be that big of an issue.

Clean Technica previously reported that the highest-mileage BMW i3 driven in South Africa surpassed a 300,000km odometer reading in January 2022.

After clocking three times the range of the cheapest used i3 on Cars.co.za, its useable capacity had declined from 18.8kWh to 16kWh, meaning it was around 15% lower.

Even if the battery on the used model had deteriorated by that much, it would still offer around 2.4 times the capacity of the Eleksa Pony and a similar range.

On top of that, the 2015 i3 boasts a 125kW electric motor that supports a top speed of 150km/h.

Combined with 130Nm of torque that allows it to accelerate from 0-100km/h in 7.2 seconds, it can easily beat a VW Polo 1.0 TSI.

With the BMW i3 discontinued, the cheapest fully road-legal EV available in South Africa new is the GWM Ora Funky Cat.

The hatchback will start at R716,900 when it starts rolling out to South African showroom floors in late Q2 2023 or early Q3 2023.

It narrowly beats the Mini Cooper SE 3-door hatchback’s retail price of R742,102.

In distant third place is Volvo’s XC40 Recharge Plus, priced at R1.075 million rand.

That leaves a R300,000-sized gap where no electric cars are currently on sale.

However, two models are expected to help plug that hole in the coming months.

Volvo’s EX30 compact SUV has already been confirmed for a launch in early 2024 and will start at R775,900 for its entry-level single-motor model.

Chinese EV giant Build your Dreams (BYD) is also set to launch locally, with its first model available in South Africa being the Atto 3 compact SUV.

Cheapest EVs in South Africa

Below are the five cheapest electric vehicles you can buy new in South Africa right now, with some of their key specifications stacked against comparable petrol or diesel cars.

For EV charging prices, we used the typical R7.35/kWh of GridCars’ DC charging network. Charging at home will typically cost roughly a third of that rate.

For petrol prices, we used the inland unleaded 95 price for June 2023, while the diesel price used was calculated from the wholesale 50ppm price plus a 15% margin.

GWM Ora Funky Cat — R716,900

Volvo XC40 P6

Mercedes-Benz EQA