Solar-powered truck charging gains ground on South Africa’s freight
corridors
[February 26, 2026] By
ALLAN OLINGO
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Africa’s freight corridors, long dominated by
diesel trucks and constrained by unreliable power grids, are emerging as
a new frontier in the global shift toward clean logistics, with
solar-powered charging hubs designed specifically for heavy-duty
electric trucks.
In Africa, Cape Town-based Zero Carbon Charge, or Charge, is pioneering
this technology. It follows global models such as WattEV in California
and Milence, a joint venture between Germany’s Daimler Truck and Volvo,
which have built solar-powered truck charging hubs to support
high-capacity freight charging.
Charge is rolling out two fully off-grid, solar-powered electric vehicle
charging stations along South Africa’s busiest freight and passenger
corridor between Johannesburg and Durban, following a pilot that
successfully fully charged a heavy-duty electric truck using only solar
energy.
The rollout along the 570-kilometer (354-mile) N3 highway — a key artery
linking the country’s economic hub with its main port — is backed by a
$6.2 million equity investment from the Development Bank of Southern
Africa (DBSA). The funding, announced last July, was conditional on the
company building off-grid charging infrastructure every 150 kilometers
(90 miles) along national roads.
Charge said the two stations will be completed by June, enabling
long-distance EV travel along one of South Africa’s busiest transport
routes.
The company's co-founder, Joubert Roux, said the next phase will focus
on the N1 corridor connecting Johannesburg and Cape Town, extending
off-grid, ultra-fast charging across South Africa’s main long-distance
routes.
Each off-grid site costs about $1.25 million.
“This investment allows us to move from pilot projects to full-scale
rollouts,” Roux said. “We have proven that it’s possible to fully charge
electric trucks using solar energy, and now we are building the
infrastructure to do that commercially and reliably.”
Charge successfully demonstrated its capacity to link clean energy with
freight transport in January when it simultaneously charged two
heavy-duty electric trucks supplied by China's SANY Trucks alongside
four passenger EVs.
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Workers offload grains from a truck at the Mile 12 Market in Lagos,
Nigeria, Feb. 16, 2024. AP Photo/Mansur Ibrahim, File)
 Other clean transport companies in
Africa have mostly focused on electric motorbikes. Companies such as
Kenya's Spiro and Ampersand have integrated renewable energy into
parts of their battery-swapping infrastructure, particularly outside
major cities. However, they are hybrid systems rather than fully
off-grid solar networks designed for heavy trucks.
South Africa's imports of EVs have been rising, but charging
infrastructure remains limited and largely concentrated in major
cities. Heavy-duty electric trucks face additional hurdles due to
high energy requirements and a shortage of high-capacity charging
sites, even as the national utility struggles to meet demand.
“Our approach is to build energy-resilient charging hubs that are
not dependent on an unstable grid,” Roux said. “By combining solar
and storage, we can provide predictable, clean power for fleets.”
Roux said adoption of electric freight technology still faces
several risks, including regulatory delays for site approvals, high
import duties, truck certification requirements and limited vehicle
availability.
“Fleet operators are under pressure to decarbonize, but they need
commercially viable solutions,” Roux said. “This investment helps us
deploy infrastructure for logistics, mining and long-haul transport.
We believe this model can reduce emissions while strengthening
energy security.”
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