Toyota now sells almost 1.5 million hybrids a year But not in South Africa.... I have waited nearly 5 months for a Toyota hybrid to become available for purchase in Cape Town. I signed my offer to purchase in April 2016 and it finally arrived this week (mine is actually only due in October so this one was found earlier from likely someone else's cancelled order). During this time I tried to source a Nissan Leaf EV in Cape Town only to be asked by the saleswoman what a Leaf was. After speaking to the sales manager at Nissan Cape Town it turns out not only do they not have any Leafs for sale in Cape Town, but there is also no facilities to service them (end of that option). Not only do we have next to none incentives to buy hybrids or EV's in Cape Town (apart from saving R1,000 carbon tax) but the vehicle salespeople seem woefully unaware of what EVs and even hybrids are. They are just not geared up on how to sell them. So it all results in little demand, and nothing to kick start the process locally. We don't even have any Prius Plug-In hybrids sold in South Africa at all. It's going to be a long while before these vehicles get traction in South Africa in any meaningful way unless something changes on the incentives side. See http://ift.tt/2bRB7VD
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