News · EV + solar · 27 Oct 2026
Geely E2 + solar battery: about R7,307/month to drive petrol-free
South Africa’s cheapest new EV plus a modest solar-and-battery kit can be modelled at roughly R7 307 a month over seven years — car finance at R6 274 and a ~R42 000 PV+battery add-on at R1 033 — according to MyBroadband’s October 2026 arithmetic. Here is what that number includes, where it breaks, and how it compares with grid-only charging.
The headline monthly number
MyBroadband’s 16 October 2026 worksheet puts a Geely E2 Aspire (from R339 900, 39.2 kWh pack, ~325 km claimed) on a 7-year vehicle loan at 13% with R6 274/month instalments, then adds a ~R42 199 solar-and-battery top-up on a 20% personal loan at R1 033/month. Combined: R7 307/month for seven years — after which charging is effectively free on that kit while the car’s battery warranty still has runway (8 years / 160 000 km in the article’s framing).
What sits inside the R42 199 solar add-on
| Item | Figure (MyBroadband, Oct 2026) |
|---|---|
| Deye 7.68 kWh battery (street) | R23 999 |
| Five × 620 W panels | R1 640 each in their cart |
| Main components subtotal | R32 199 |
| Balance of system + install allowance | R10 000 |
| Total solar+battery add-on | R42 199 |
| Optional extra 5 kW hybrid inverter finance | +~R451/month over 7 years → ~R7 758 total |
They sized panels for Johannesburg production to refill roughly a day’s E2 energy (about 6.5 kWh including losses on a ~43 km round-trip commute assumption), leaning to ~3 kWp so cloudy stretches still recover. Most owners who already own a hybrid inverter can skip the optional inverter line.
Grid-only vs solar-backed running cost
On Eskom Homepower 4 at R3.56/kWh, MyBroadband’s commute energy is about R697/month — versus roughly R2.29/km class petrol maths at R30.25/ℓ and 7.4 ℓ/100 km for a comparable burner (their comparison). Solar-and-battery shifts that energy off the tariff after the loan, which is the savings punchline when fuel has climbed sharply through 2026 (they cite unleaded 95 up ~45.8% Jan–Oct).
Caveats before you copy the spreadsheet
- Interest rates dominate. A 20% personal loan on the solar kit is punitive; a home-improvement or green facility at single-digit rates changes R7 307 a lot. Ask your bank before you accept the headline.
- Geely may not yet report to naamsa — national BEV tallies understate cars like the E2; treat market-share charts accordingly (our naamsa note).
- CoC, SSEG and DB capacity are not inside the R42 k hardware sketch. Budget compliance and a dedicated wallbox circuit — home charger cost, SSEG.
- Night charging needs the battery (or off-peak grid). Panels alone do not refill an overnight commute pack without storage or daytime plug-in at work.
How to rebuild the sheet for your house
Replace three inputs before you trust R7 307: (1) your actual bank rate for the car and for the solar kit; (2) your metro or Homeflex energy rate including the block you will land in after EV kWh; (3) whether you already own a hybrid inverter with free battery ports. Keep MyBroadband’s hardware sketch as a bill-of-materials peer, not as a turnkey quote — labour, CoC, trunking, earth upgrades and estate rules sit outside their R10 000 install allowance in many suburbs.
If your daily drive is 80 km, double the battery refill assumption and re-check panel count; if it is 25 km, you can often drop toward 5 kWh usable and fewer panels. Weekend-heavy drivers should prefer a slightly larger array and a weekend daylight charge habit over a huge pack that idles Monday to Thursday. Workplace AC, if reliable, is the quiet killer of home-battery CapEx — verify socket access in writing before you buy storage “just in case.”
Finally, stack maintenance honestly: EVs usually need less routine mechanical spend than petrol peers, but tyres and one-off software campaigns still appear. Solar needs inverter mid-life planning around year 10–12. The R7 307 figure is a financing headline for year one through seven; years eight-plus are where the solar-backed EV story usually widens the gap versus fuel — provided the kit was registered, labelled and kept claim-ready.
Where this sits next to Chery Q and BYD math
September 2026 naamsa-reported sales put Chery’s Q at the top of the fully electric chart in its debut month, with BYD close behind across several models. Pack sizes in the low-40 kWh class share the same home-solar logic as the E2: modest daily kWh, wallbox first, small battery if nights dominate. Do not copy a 70 kWh dual-motor spreadsheet onto a city hatch.
If Geely remains outside naamsa reporting, national dashboards will under-count exactly the buyers most likely to need a R40 k-class solar add-on. Installers should ask which OEM the customer actually bought, not which brand leads the press chart. More market context: BEV sales quadruple; sizing answer: cheap EV solar sizing.
How to read a bundled EV + solar EMI
Bundled monthly figures mix car finance, solar hardware and sometimes insurance. Split the quote: (1) vehicle repayment on its own NCA sheet, (2) solar/battery supply-and-install on a separate total-cost sheet, (3) expected kWh shift on your real tariff. If the solar slice cannot stand alone against monthly savings maths, the bundle is a car deal with panels attached — not an energy plan.
Confirm which entity holds the SSEG registration and CoC, and what happens to the array if you settle the car early or sell the house — solar finance · selling with solar.
Compliance still sits with the property
Whoever finances the kit, municipal SSEG and the electrical CoC attach to the installation address. Confirm the registered person, the NRS inverter model on the certificate, and whether export is zeroed until a bi-directional meter arrives. A car-dealership timeline does not override metro queues — SSEG · CoC.
R7,307/month — what to verify before the debit
A bundled car + solar + battery EMI is a sales shape, not a tariff. Demand the hardware schedule (kWp, inverter model, usable kWh, wallbox amps), the SSEG applicant name, total amount payable, and what happens to the kit if you settle the car early. Compare the energy portion against a standalone bank energy loan or bond further advance on the same kit — bond / energy finance · finance desk.
If export credits are baked into the affordability story, strike them until the bi-directional meter and tariff code are live. Self-use against your metro’s import blocks is the honest ledger.
Winter and Stage 4 honesty inside a car-deal bundle
Ask whether the savings sketch uses January PV or a 12-month file, and whether the battery usable kWh covers your essentials for a dark Stage 4 evening. A car launch EMI that ignores July and shedding is entertainment, not a household ledger — winter production · Stage 4 battery.
Document pack still beats the launch banner
Same rules as any EPC: NRS-matched inverter file, CoC path, SSEG applicant, usable kWh, and total payable. If the dealership cannot produce them, pause — choose an installer · read a quote.
Sources
- MyBroadband, “R7,307 per month for a petrol-free car charged using solar power in South Africa” (16 Oct 2026).
- Tariff peers: Eskom Homepower / Homeflex schedules 2026/27; metro tables on our metro tariffs page.