SONAH Group becomes authorised SA distributor for SAEV Charge, powered by Solar MD

The announcement came in a SONAH Group company social post about four days before publication. It links three South African names that already show up often in our coverage: SAEV Charge, which runs the R3.49/kWh public DC site at Solar MD’s Richmond factory (our report); Solar MD, the local lithium battery maker behind it; and SONAH, a B2B solar and electrical distributor that sells to installers and contractors.

What SONAH says the deal covers

• National distribution of SAEV Charge products through SONAH’s trade channel, across South Africa.
• Fleet focus: the post frames the offer around operational scalability, meaning depots and businesses that need to charge many vehicles without rebuilding their electrical supply.
• 120 kW+ from as little as 10 kW grid supply, with “no grid upgrade required”. The battery fills slowly from the grid (and solar, where available) and discharges quickly into the car.
• Full stack with Solar MD, from the battery through to payments, with intelligent load management.
• Works with 100+ inverters and meters, which SONAH presents as no vendor lock-in.
• Track record: 10 years of Solar MD control software on the mypower24 platform, which the post says has 100,000+ users.

All of the above are company statements. Solar News 24 has not independently tested the hardware or audited the user figures.

Why the 10 kW figure matters, and its limits

For many businesses, the hard part of DC fast charging is not the charger. It is the supply. Upgrading a connection or raising notified maximum demand can take months and cost more than the hardware. A battery-buffered charger sidesteps that by storing energy and releasing it at high power for short sessions.

The physics sets the ceiling, though. A 10 kW supply delivers at most about 240 kWh a day if it runs flat out for 24 hours. A fleet that needs more energy than that each day still needs more supply, more solar, or a bigger battery. 120 kW describes how fast a car can charge, not how many cars a site can serve. SAEV’s own DC-to-DC station pairs the charger with a 272 kWh Solar MD battery, which gives a sense of the buffer involved.

Where this sits among wholesalers

Installers buying EV charging hardware in South Africa have several trade routes. National electrical houses such as Herholdt’s, ARB, Voltex and ACDC Dynamics, and solar specialists such as DBS Energy, all carry charging or related switchgear ranges. SONAH’s angle is putting SAEV’s battery-backed chargers alongside the solar, storage and switchgear an installer is already quoting. See our guide to choosing a solar and electrical wholesaler.

The honest caveats

• The 120 kW-from-10 kW and “no grid upgrade” claims are company-stated. Confirm on a site survey, sized against your fleet’s real daily kWh.
• “No vendor lock-in” depends on your exact inverter and meter models. Ask for the compatibility list before you sign.
• Any fixed installation still needs a registered electrician and a CoC.
• For homes, nothing changes: a dedicated 7.4 kW wallbox remains the sensible default.

Planning fleet charging? Start with our fleet charging answer, the EV charging guide, and our comparison of home EV chargers.

Sources

• SONAH Group company social post on the SAEV Charge distribution agreement, October 2026.
• SAEV Charge, Solar MD and SONAH Group company sites.
• MyBroadband via DriveElectric, 6 October 2026 (272 kWh station, Richmond rates).