Pay As You Save® (PAYS®)

This industry brief describes the Pay As You Save (PAYS) financing model designed to accelerate the adoption of electric buses in South Africa by removing the barrier of high upfront capital costs.

• Transport accounts for 10% of South Africa's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with conventional buses relying on carbon-intensive liquid fuels. Electric buses are identified as the best business case for the electrification of road transport due to their energy, emissions, and space efficiency, although they face barriers regarding cost and range.
• The Pay As You Save (PAYS) model addresses the high upfront cost of electric buses by allowing a bus operator to pay only the equivalent cost of a diesel bus. The local municipality or utility finances the battery and charging infrastructure, recovering the costs through a fixed 'PAYS tariff' added to the operator's electricity bill. This tariff is structured to ensure the operator achieves operational cost savings while the funder receives a return on investment within the equipment's lifetime.
• PAYS provides specific advantages to four primary stakeholders: bus service providers (BSPs) shift capital expenditure to lower monthly operating expenses; utilities/municipalities gain new electricity revenue and use their stronger balance sheets to access cheaper capital; capital providers gain exposure to the electric vehicle industry through a more creditworthy counterparty (the utility); and manufacturers increase sales in markets where upfront costs were previously prohibitive.
• In a scenario involving 100 electric buses in Cape Town, carbon emissions could be reduced by 30% (6,000 tons) if using the South African electrical grid, or by 70% (19,200 tons) if using renewable energy. Such a deployment could also generate 86.4GWh of additional electricity sales for the city.

APA

Kumalo, K. (2018). Pay As You Save® (PAYS®). GreenCape. https://greencape.co.za/assets/Uploads/PAYS-INDUSTRY-BRIEF-OPTION-Final.pdf

Chicago

Kumalo, Khanyiselo. Pay As You Save® (PAYS®). GreenCape, 2018. https://greencape.co.za/assets/Uploads/PAYS-INDUSTRY-BRIEF-OPTION-Final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kumalo |first1=Khanyiselo |title=Pay As You Save® (PAYS®) |publisher=GreenCape |date=April 2018 |url=https://greencape.co.za/assets/Uploads/PAYS-INDUSTRY-BRIEF-OPTION-Final.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kumalo2018pay, author = {Kumalo, Khanyiselo}, title = {{Pay As You Save® (PAYS®)}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2018}, month = apr, url = {https://greencape.co.za/assets/Uploads/PAYS-INDUSTRY-BRIEF-OPTION-Final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }