A silent safari
Lewanika Timothy | Tuesday November 4, 2025 14:01
Stepping into the electric 4x4 at Chobe Game Lodge, the usual roar of engines is non-existent and has been replaced by silent battery power. Driving through the park, every sound of wildlife from elephants crossing the mighty Chobe, can be heard, creating a quiet, immersive safari experience I hadn’t expected.
Mmegi was recently there to interview Chobe Game Lodge director, Johan Bruwer, to learn more about this EV technology.
Mmegi: What specific design elements make these electric vehicles so effective in Chobe’s rugged terrain? Out here the conditions can be unpredictable, with rocks, sand, bush, and riverbanks all in one drive. How do these vehicles manage to stay stable and avoid damage underneath. Also, what role does the battery placement or weight distribution play in that performance?
Bruwer: When you look at the vehicle, actually underneath the vehicle, it's all nice, smooth, flat, right through. So straight away, you don't have any points that things can hook onto when you drive with this vehicle in the veldt or in the bush or over rocks or whatever because there's not much that vehicle can hook onto. That is a huge benefit for us.
You get great ground clearance and that's a huge benefit. The other nice benefit is that the battery pack is actually forming part of the of the leather frame chassis. So it sits in the chassis and forms part of the chassis and the weight distribution of that battery pack is 50-50, 50% rear, 50% front. So you've got a nice even low centre of gravity on that vehicle too. That vehicle as it stands there, and with many electric vehicles, one of the strong points is that they're really difficult to actually tip over.
Mmegi: How does the type of battery used in these electric vehicles affect their performance and safety in the park? You mentioned a 60-kilowatt-hour lithium phosphate battery - what makes that choice ideal for Chobe’s conditions, and how does its lower energy density compare to higher-end options like Tesla’s batteries in real-world use?
Bruwer: This vehicle has a 60 kilowatt hour battery pack. It's a lithium phosphate battery pack which is now becoming very common in the e-mobility environment. It's a cheaper battery chemistry, but the only disadvantage it has, is that its energy density is lower than your Tesla batteries, and all those wonderful chemical compounds that they put in their batteries.
Mmegi: How does the electric 4x4’s battery size and motor setup translate into real performance in the park? You’ve mentioned a 60 kWh pack soon moving to 85 kWh and dual motors on each axle. In practice, how does that design affect range, daily operations like multiple game drives, and the kind of torque and control you need for Chobe’s slow, rugged terrain?
Bruwer: Their battery density is obviously much higher, so you can have much more electricity in a smaller volume in their vehicles. However, because this is a 4x4 and it's quite a rigid vehicle and quite a big vehicle, weight is not such a big deal with us, so you can pack it with a nice big battery pack. So what you lose on battery density, you can make up with a bigger battery pack and more weight because it actually makes the vehicle steadier.
They're going to introduce one with an 85 kilowatt hour battery pack too, which I'm very excited about, but we found, I always find people asking me how far can you go? How long does it charge? It's like how long is a piece of string? You can drive with this vehicle like we found out here basically the whole day and also like with our previous older vehicles, because you charge it, you're topping it up the whole time. Every time when you stop, you plug it in and you put in electricity when it's stationary between activities, but with this vehicle, it's got a bigger battery pack than our current fleet.
So that is the amazing thing of having this nice battery pack and also having the vehicle designed because it's much more energy efficient than our current fleet that we have up here because they've got long prop shafts. This vehicle has got two motors, one on the front axle, one on the rear axle and literally about a drive shaft out of the motor, less than half a meter running to the wheel. So at the hub of the wheel, you've got a piece of axle from the motor, from the source that generates the electricity, the torque, the kilowatts.
You know, when you're out there in a game drive, you drive usually at about 10 kilometres an hour or 15 kilometres per hour. Very rarely do you go over 40 kilometres an hour because you're not supposed to in the national park. But that environment is perfect for this electric motor setup due to the fact that you've got 90 plus percent of your torque available on the spot.
Mmegi: How do these new electric vehicles change the way you manage and monitor your fleet operations in the park? With the built-in telemetry and geofencing features, it sounds like you can now track vehicle behaviour in real time and even limit performance if a car goes outside approved areas - how does that improve driver accountability and overall efficiency for Chobe’s operations?
Bruwer: From a management point of view for, for us as an operator and for a fleet application, these vehicles are going to be a huge benefit for companies to have them because you can actually reward drivers as well for good behaviour. That's the plan with this telemetry as well.
You can see exactly where that vehicle has been and that is a, that is a very nice benefit. If it goes out of certain perimeters, it will go into what they call limp mode. It won't die, but it will just slow down to like 10 kilometres per hour or five kilometres per hour.
Mmegi: What’s the long-term value of investing in electric vehicles for a safari operation like Chobe’s? You’ve acknowledged that the upfront cost is higher, but with fewer moving parts and minimal maintenance over a decade, plus the environmental benefits of cleaner, quieter transport, how do you see these vehicles reshaping responsible tourism in such a sensitive ecosystem?
Bruwer: So over a lifetime of 10 years, taking into account that all those things that need to be replaced in the conventional vehicles, that's taken out of the equation on the electric vehicle. So the benefits are just left here. It's incredible. The vehicles, yes, are expensive. They cost more than an internal combustion vehicle.
The point is, as a responsible tourism operator, this environment that we sit in is already over congested and also the pristine environment that we are in, it makes sense that any operator that operates in these environments look at their ways of how they operate to make their footprint as small as possible.
Mmegi: How has switching to electric vehicles changed the game drive experience for both guides and guests? You’ve described it as more immersive, quieter, cleaner, and more connected to the sounds and smells of the bush. Combined with Chobe Game Lodge’s all-female guiding team and zero-emission operations, how do these elements redefine what sustainable, luxury safari tourism looks like in Botswana today?
Bruwer: You can just listen. It's a much more immersive experience when you go out on a game drive in that vehicle than when you go out in a diesel vehicle. Your senses are much more acutely aware of the environment.
You hear animals, you hear bird life much better. Your smells are much better. Your sense of smell is much better because you don't get a whiff of diesel smells or fumes or anything.
There are no coal fired power stations where we get our power from. So that, in combination with using electric vehicles, just makes a compelling responsible business decision and our guests obviously love it.
I mean, for a guest experience, if you can just observe the guests getting into one of these vehicles, going out on a game drive, it is profound to see their reaction. Our older units are pretty noisy compared to these ones.
And then you have a lovely female guide driving you. Chobe Game Lodge is the only one with all female guides. All these unique features make the experience just so much more unique. And that's what we do in the business of selling dreams to our tourists in Chobe National Park and in Botswana.
Mmegi: Is this part of a long-term sustainability plan? And how do you see it differentiating from other players in the industry, particularly from a sustainability matrix?
Bruwer: In August 2014, when we launched our first electric vehicle here and our first electric boat, we had a lot of critics. People were saying, ah, it's going to be a white elephant. People were telling us it's costing too much money, it's not worth it and it's not sustainable. And we've proven all the naysayers wrong. Over a decade later, we are going still.
We've got these lovely boats. We've just removed the technology that we had at the boats and have replaced them all with e-propulsion motors and new battery packs.
We did it because we wanted to upgrade our fleet, not because they were giving us problems when it comes to actual distances. The batteries were degrading and it was time to upgrade and put these new battery packs in.
Mmegi: What kind of role do you think government support could play in accelerating e-mobility in Botswana? You’ve mentioned the potential for tax rebates and policy incentives — beyond environmental impact, how could such measures stimulate new industries, create skilled jobs, and position Botswana as a leader in electric transport across tourism and other sectors?
Bruwer: I feel our government could really get stuck in to subsidising e-mobility in all industries in Botswana, even for private use by giving tax rebates, anything in that line to stimulate the adoption of e-mobility in this country. We've seen examples of that in America, in Europe, all over the world. It can be done.
And it will generate a lot of, it will create new streams of employment, big time. Young people learning about high voltage auto electricians, working with these systems, it is amazing. I've got a living example here in my maintenance manager. He learned and what he knows today of high voltage DC, e-mobility and he's probably the leading authority on the ground today in Botswana when it comes to knowing how it works.