As automakers increasingly look to the production of electric powered vehicles, any possibility of these being sold in significant quantities here is remote at the best.

According to Kent LaCroix, president of the Automobile Dealers Association (ADA), the local umbrella organisation of new-car dealers, support services for such vehicles are lacking and unlikely to be here in the near future.

“I don’t think we are quite ready for that right now,” LaCroix told Auto Wednesday.

“If someone brings in these vehicles they have to know how they are going to be serviced,” he added.

LaCroix also cautioned that auto manufacturers decided what models were marketed in the various countries.

The ADA president, while agreeing that where environment issues were concerned electric cars are the way to go, made it clear that the vehicles were still new technology and very expensive to purchase.

“They would be very expensive despite reductions in duties locally. It is still new technology,” LaCroix contended. Government offers a reduction in import duties on hybrids and flex-fuel, which are considered energy efficient vehicles.

Public acceptance was another hurdle that the ADA president argued would work heavily against the vehicles on the local market.

He also questioned the disposal methods of batteries used in powering electric vehicles.

“There are limitations in the make up of these, in particular the battery they carry around,” said LaCroix. “How does one dispose if these.”

However, with Jamaica’s burdensome oil bill, electric and other such vehicles could conceivably release some pressure as, according to Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica consultant, Dr Raymond Wright, about 21 per cent of imported oil is used to fuel Jamaica’s transport sector.

Meanwhile, carmakers across the globe are rigorously exploring the production electric vehicles for the mass market, highlighted at the current Paris Auto Show where a reported 30 per cent of exhibits have electric capabilities.

In fact, Nissan has already unveiled the all-electric Leaf, a four-door hatchback, which the Japanese auto-company feels will energise the electric car market.

And already there is a raft of hybrids on the market, led by the Toyota Prius, that use a combination of electric and gasoline powered engines.

Reasoning behind an electric vehicle is driven largely by the vagary of world oil prices and the need to produce cleaner engines to reduce harmful emissions.

But while the possibility of all-electric vehicles gaining traction in the local market might be unlikely, hybrids are already being sold, albeit in small numbers.

Toyota Jamaica, for example, introduced the Prius to the local market last year and insists that they are fully capable of adequately supporting the new-type technology.

“We have all the technology here to service it,” Toyota Jamaica sales and marketing manager Howard Foster emphasised.

He added that there has not been an official launch of the vehicle but it has been tested extensively in Jamaican conditions.

“People have actually gone abroad to learn about it, we have to be sure we have all the technology regarding tools, servicing and parts before we launch it,” said Foster.

In the meantime LaCroix argued that despite the positives of electric vehicles, emphasis in Jamaica should instead be placed on diesel technology.

Even with the importation of hybrid vehicles the technology for mass use is still not here, he noted.

“The thing that should be considered is improving the quality of diesel fuel so that more of those vehicles can be imported, said LaCroix.