Two battery-electric trucks have started a planned 4,000km run across South Africa's main freight routes. The Mzansi EV Truck Super Test 2026 launched in Boksburg this week, covering Johannesburg, Cape Town, Gqeberha, East London, Durban and back, along sections of the N1, N2 and N3.

The vehicles are a 35-tonne 4x2 and an eight-tonne rigid, supplied by SANY. The first leg reaches Cape Town on 28 September for Africa E-Mobility Week.

The testing standard is what gives the exercise weight. It is being run under what the organisers call Class A independent rules, meaning flx EV controls the route, driving, telemetry, analysis and reporting, while SANY's role is limited to supplying production vehicles and standard warranty support.

The manufacturer does not touch the data. GoMetro's ZAPPP telematics units record at 1Hz, pulling directly from the vehicles' CAN-bus systems, and the organisers are seeking independent verification from the Smart Freight Centre Foundation. If certified, the run would exceed the current Class A benchmark of roughly 3,000km by more than 25%.

The second objective matters as much as the first. Charging sessions are being logged along the way, because most existing South African charging infrastructure was built for passenger cars rather than commercial freight. GoMetro chief executive Justin Coetzee, who founded flx EV, says the point is not waiting for external markets to prove electric trucking works in African conditions.

ITWeb's Admire Moyo reported the launch and the partner structure, with the Kuehne Climate Centre as lead sponsor, GoMetro on telematics, SANY Africa and GHM Machinery supplying vehicles, and the Smart Freight Centre as verifier.

Olivia Lamenya, senior manager for climate and logistics at the Kuehne Climate Centre, says Africa needs its own tested and verified e-mobility solutions so operators, policymakers and investors have facts before committing fleets. ITWeb has separately reported the industry push for a national EV charging framework, which is the policy gap this trial is designed to evidence.

Nobody electrifies a freight fleet on a brochure. The reason this matters is that no operator here has independently verified energy consumption figures for a loaded truck on the N3 in South African conditions, at South African gradients, temperatures and load weights, and without that nobody can build a credible total cost of ownership model. This trial produces exactly that, and the Class A structure means the manufacturer cannot shape the result.

Two things worth watching. The charging data will show where dedicated truck hubs are needed, which is a procurement map for anyone in that business, and it lands while South Africa imports more than half its diesel and petrol after losing half its refining capacity.

Diesel exposure is now a bet on the rand and the oil price with no domestic buffer. The trucks are still cheaper to run only if the charging exists, which is the whole point of measuring it.

You might also like our piece on the Riddara electric bakkie launching at R611,900, how SA lost half its refining capacity in a decade, and the Johannesburg electric bus trial testing manufacturers head-to-head.

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