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What does a work vehicle really cost you over 12 months?

When a business is considering electrification, the question is simple: What is my total cost over the next 12 months? Many businesses first look at the purchase price of a vehicle, but that does not tell the full story. The question is: What will it cost me to run this vehicle?

For many South African businesses, it is not about long-distance travelling or high speed. It is about short, repetitive trips on a site: from the workshop to the storeroom, from the farmyard to the fields, from the lodge to the service area, or from the warehouse to the loading bay. It is precisely this kind of role that an electric utility vehicle makes a very strong case for.

Lekkewaan’s vehicles are positioned for this type of work: lower running costs, quiet operation, less maintenance and practical use in both indoor and outdoor spaces. To compare this meaningfully, it helps to use a transparent, item-by-item model with clear assumptions and realistic cost lines.

The two vehicles in the model

On the petrol side, we use a Nissan NP200 1.6i as a representative light utility vehicle. The average fuel consumption is given as 8.1 litres per 100 km, with a recommended retail price of around R245,000.

On the electric side, we use the roadworthy Lekkewaan Lekke TailG 1.6. This model has a 60V 52Ah lead-acid battery, a range of 40–50 km, a load capacity of 350–400 kg, a recharge time of 8–12 hours and a 1200W motor.

Energy prices: where the first major difference begins

The first cost line to look at is energy.

According to the Fuels Industry Association’s table, 95 ULP petrol was priced at R23.36 per litre on 1 April 2026. At a usage profile of 1,000 km per month, the petrol vehicle uses around 81 litres of petrol. This brings the monthly fuel bill to about R1,892 — or more than R22,700 per year.

On the electricity side, we use Eskom’s Businessrate-1 variable components as the basis for incremental charging costs. The relevant charges come to roughly R3.04/kWh. Note that this calculation includes only the variable kWh costs, not fixed daily charges such as network or administration fees.

Based on the TailG 1.6’s battery capacity and range, along with a reasonable estimate of charging losses, the electricity consumption is approximately 0.077 kWh per km. At 1,000 km per month, that's about 77 kWh of electricity, which works out to roughly R234 per month — or just over R2,800 per year.

This is the first point at which the gap between petrol and electric becomes very clear.

Maintenance changes the picture even further.

The second major difference is in maintenance. Lekkewaan highlights reduced maintenance and specifically the absence of oil-related servicing. This does not mean that an electric vehicle doesn’t require any maintenance at all — tyres, brakes, battery care and general drivetrain inspections remain important — but the mechanical complexity is usually lower.

For a business, this makes a practical difference. Fewer parts need to be replaced, less time is lost in the workshop, and there are fewer operational interruptions. For that reason, it is reasonable, for modelling purposes, to budget around R5,000 per year for petrol vehicle maintenance and R2,000 per year for the electric vehicle.

Insurance and depreciation also count.

Two further cost lines that should not be ignored are insurance and depreciation.

The general principle is simple: the more expensive the vehicle, the higher the annual insurance cost and the greater the amount lost over time to depreciation. For that reason, a more compact electric utility vehicle often compares more favourably here too than a traditional petrol work vehicle.

In this model, insurance is added at 3.5% of the vehicle’s value per year, and depreciation is calculated at 15% of the vehicle’s value in year one. These are assumptions, but they help make the comparison more realistic.

Result: monthly and annual costs

With the assumptions above, the comparison looks as follows:

Cost category	Petrol: per month	Petrol: per year	Electric: per month	Electric: per year
Energy: fuel/electricity	R1,892	R22,706	R234	R2,810
Maintenance (budgeted)	R417	R5,000	R167	R2,000
Insurance (3.5%/year, assumption)	R715	R8,586	R126	R1,517
Depreciation (15%/year, assumption)	R3,066	R36,795	R542	R6,503
Total (rounded)	R6,091	R73,086	R1,069	R12,831

The one-year difference is greater than many expect

With this model, the estimated annual difference between petrol and electric is approximately R60,255. The biggest difference is the energy cost per kilometre, but the gap widens further when maintenance, insurance and depreciation are included.

Even if your specific usage profile looks slightly different, the core truth remains the same: in short, repetitive work on a site, the running costs of an electric utility vehicle is significantly lower than those of a petrol vehicle.

Where this comparison makes the most sense

This kind of analysis is therefore most useful in environments where vehicles are not used for long-distance travel, but for constant, functional movement around a site. This includes farms, warehouses, estates, golf courses and resorts.

In these environments, the goal is not top speed. The goal is availability, low running costs and work that gets done reliably every day. That is exactly where a vehicle from Lekkewaan fits in: as a tool that makes work easier, not more expensive.

Purchase price is not the whole story.

The biggest mistake businesses make is to look only at the purchase price. The question is not: What does the vehicle cost today? The right question is: What will the vehicle cost me over a year of work?

When that question is answered honestly, electric utility vehicles look very strong. Lower energy costs, less maintenance and better predictability make a real difference to the budget. For many businesses, the shift to electric is therefore no longer just an idealistic step — it is a financially sound decision.