Latest news with #R875
TimesLIVE
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
Honda to scale back on EVs and concentrate on hybrids
Honda said on Tuesday it was scaling back its investment in electric vehicles, given slowing demand, and would focus on capturing growing demand for hybrids with new models. CEO Toshihiro Mibe told a press conference the automaker has lowered its planned investment in electrification and software through the 2030 business year to ¥7-trillion (R875,694,424,000) from ¥10-trillion (R1,252,332,000,000) previously. "Based on the current market slowdown, we expect EV sales in 2030 to fall below the 30% we previously targeted," Mibe said, adding battery-powered cars might make up only around 20% of the company's sales by then. Honda said it expects to sell 2.2-million to 2.3-million hybrid vehicles by 2030. It has not released a total sales target for that year. It plans to launch 13 next-generation hybrid models globally in the four years from 2027. It will also develop a hybrid system for large size models it plans to launch in the second half of the decade. Earlier this month, Honda announced it had put on hold for about two years a C$15-bn (R193,322,252,140) plan to build an EV production base in Ontario, Canada, due to slowing demand for electric cars. Honda said, however, it plans to have battery-powered and fuel-cell vehicles make up all its new car sales by 2040.
Time Out
09-05-2025
- Business
- Time Out
Flyers flock to FlySafair's R11 sale
About four seconds. That was my record playing the 'Flappy Bird' game, which kept more than a million hopeful flyers entertained during the FlySafair 'MegaSale' on Wednesday. The annual sale from low-cost carrier FlySafair has become a calendar event for South Africans searching for a cheap-as-chips airfare, and this year the airline offered 50,000 tickets at just R11 per seat. Last year it was R10, but, hey, inflation. What's most impressive is that the R11 includes airport taxes! On a typical flight from Cape Town to OR Tambo International Airport, airport taxes and aviation levies would usually account for R875 of the fare. So it's no surprise that the FlySafair website—or, rather, the waiting room established to prevent the site from crashing—hosted over 1.4 million visitors during the sale. This year, the final tally for the waiting room was 1.484 million people, slightly down from last year's figure of 1,713,980. With the sale kicking off at 9am, it's no surprise that traffic peaked in the first two hours, but the final ticket was sold at 4:12pm. Flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town are the most popular each year, with 24% of the tickets on sale allocated to this route. This is followed by Johannesburg/Durban, Durban/Joburg, Lanseria/Cape Town, and Cape Town/Durban. 'Since we ran our first birthday sale in 2015, we have sold 315 000 tickets between R1 and R11,' said Kirby Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer at FlySafair. It's thanks to the support of our team and customers that we can share our love of flying with more people each year. Congratulations to this year's lucky R11 ticket holders, and here's to many more years of flying with heart.' Did you get a ticket? I'm sad to say I didn't, but then I was working to specific dates. If you got a seat for the price of 22 Chappies, bon voyage!
Time Out
06-05-2025
- Time Out
Fancy an R11 flight? FlySafair's mega-sale is back!
You might recall the online mayhem of previous years, when travellers went mad for the chance to bag a cut-price FlySafair fare. And to be fair, it is a pretty darn good deal. Starting at 9am on May 7, 2025, FlySafair will sell 50,000 seats across its domestic flight network for R11 each. Eleven bucks! That's the same price as a litre of milk, a Bar-One, or 22 Chappies! Perhaps even more impressive is that the fare includes the airport tax. On a typical flight from Cape Town to OR Tambo International Airport, airport taxes and aviation levies account for R875 of what you would usually pay! The sale takes place exclusively on FlySafair's website – – and, as with previous sales, prospective flyers will have to take a number in a virtual waiting room to ensure the FlySafair website isn't overwhelmed by demand. Once (or if) you're let out of the waiting room and onto the site, you'll have 10 minutes to complete your booking, so start checking your diary for dates today. To pass the time, the airline states that you will be able to play a new waiting room game, Flappy Plane. Nice. Of course, any deal this good has to have terms and conditions, right? Well, the same applies here. But… FlySafair only sent us last year's Ts & Cs [oops], so we'll update this story as soon as we receive the correct ones. But if 2024 is anything to go by, expect those R11 flight bookings to be limited to departures between 8 May and the end of November. Group bookings of more than 10 passengers likely won't be allowed, and you also can't book unaccompanied minors. Stay tuned for more details!
