Electric vehicles, or EVs, are on track to encroach significantly on the market for vans and short-distance trucking, according to the latest forecast from research firm BloombergNEF (BNEF).

Trains are the most efficient mode of transportation we have. Despite carrying 9% of global passengers and 7% of global cargo, they make up just 3% of global transportation energy use.

Electric vehicles are said to be environmentally friendly alternatives to petrol and diesel-powered cars, but this is not the case in South Africa.

With fewer than 7,000 of the more than 12 million vehicles on South Africa’s road networks being emission-free, the country sorely lags behind this global trend and is unlikely to change to these alternatives to any meaningful degree at any time soon.

Of course, this is unintelligible, but what it contains is the most serious skirmish in a brewing trade dispute between China, India, Brazil and the EU. We are the wag-’n-bietjie caught on China’s sock along for the ride, helping to make up the BASIC nations, which are the BRICS nations without Russia – that is, Brazil, South Africa, India and China.

- As far as bakkie sales are concerned, Toyota’s Hilux has a stranglehold on the South African market, as it has for decades now, but that has never stopped its rivals from stepping up to the plate with some compelling alternatives.