A year into the implementation of the Government’s concessions on electric vehicles, new data show that EV imports soared to $9 billion over the period July 2022 to June 2023, as import volumes doubled year on year.

In a move aimed at softening the country’s dependence on petroleum for motor vehicles by making it more affordable for Jamaicans to acquire electric vehicles, the Government slashed the import duty on a limited number of electric vehicles from 30 per cent to 10 per cent and has removed licence fees for EVs. About a third of petroleum imports are used for transportation in Jamaica.

The concessionary measures took effect In July 2022 and will run to July 2027, but since then, EV imports have continued to rise, according to data requested by the
Jamaica Observer on electric vehicles including hybrids fromthe St atistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin).

For the year, July 2022 to June 2023, Jamaica imported 6,606 electric vehicles valued at $9.1 billion, more than double the 2,854 EVs imported a year earlier between July 2021 and June 2022 when the EVs imported were valued at $4.4 billion. Data provided by Statin only goes up to July 2023. Still, in that single month, Jamaica imported its highest quantity of EVs, totalling 951 units, which were valued at $1.5 billion. Still, despite doubling in the year to July 2023, EV imports were still just 16 per cent of the total $56 billion worth of vehicles imported into Jamaica in the same 12 months period.

While the data suggest that the EV market in Jamaica is slowly gaining some traction, key players in the industry have mixed reactions to the market’s performance, with at least one player — Andrew Jackson of Jetcon Corporation — taking the decision to minimise his company’s EV inventory.

“The EV market is dead. I’ve had EVs just sitting on the lot losing value, and even after cutting the price, they still weren’t moving. After about a year we got an offer from a company and we decided to take the deal,” Jackson told the
Jamaica Observer.

Jetcon is one the first used car dealers to dabble in the EV market. The company ordinarily stocked roughly 10 of the Nissan Leaf first-generation EV model, but given his experience with the market, Jackson says while he will still stock some EV units, the number will be fewer.

“I think a large part of the problem is the concession being offered by the Government. It’s a non-starter. It’s not significant enough to make the vehicle affordable for the average consumer and there are too many limits on who can actually benefit from the concession,” he said.

The reduced duties were expected to shave a little over $1 million off the Nissan Leaf, one of the lowest-priced battery electric vehicles available in Jamaica at $5 million, but those savings didn’t materialise for Jackson who said that upon entry into Jamaica he learnt that the vehicles did not fall within the prescribed age range to benefit from the tax break.

“It meant that those savings that I planned to pass on to the consumer were no longer possible,” Jackson said.

Days after the Government announced that it would provide a tax break on imported EVs, business operators, making early moves in the industry, criticised the Government for placing a cap of 1,000 units on the number of vehicles that could benefit from the tax break. Additionally, only electric vehicles below the age of three years could benefit from the tax incentive.

The operators’ initial take was that the measures were counterproductive, adding that the initiative would have a more meaningful impact had the limit been increased to 2,000 units. But Minister Clarke argued that the EV market cap would minimise the tax losses to $18 million over the five-year period.

Group marketing manager at ATL Automotive Limited, Christina Taylor, is also on board with the call for more incentives and has also called for greater clarity on the units which qualify for the duty break. However, EV sales at ATL Automotive are in stark contrast to EV sales a Jetcon.

“There has definitely been an uptick in sales as the price point is more attractive. We’ve introduced a variety of EVs across differing brands — mild hybrids, hybrids, plug-in, e-hybrids, and EVs since 2016, and the adoption, while slow, has increased,” Taylor told the
Business
Observer.

She credits much of the improved performance to “lessening hesitancy” in the market as motorists become more aware of the benefits of EVs and the greater development of an ecosystem to facilitate electric mobility in Jamaica.

Jamaica is still in the early stages of adoption, but power provider Jamaica Public Service (JPS) and Evergo Jamaica continue to invest in charging stations. The latest target published by JPS is for the addition of 12 electric vehicle charging stations across the island, bringing to total 22 public electric vehicle charging stations operated by JPS. Later on, JPS is looking to roll out another 16 charging plugs.

Several of the charging stations are being constructed in partnership with gasoline retailers, whose sites host the stations. So far, partners have included Boots Gas Station, Texaco, and Total. Many of JPS’s charging stations are capable of recharging EVs at some of the fastest charging rates on the island.

“Through private sector organisations such as Evergo and JPS Charge N’ Go, the range anxiety that persons have been wary of has lessened as there are almost 100 charging stations island-wide, spanning multiple convenient locations in each parish so persons can charge wherever they go,” Taylor said.

She added that with improvements in technology, older EVs which would only have about 100 km of range are also a “thing of the past”.

“Through advanced technology and improvements in battery power, EVs nowadays can easily do 450 to 680 km, taking you from Kingston to Negril and back,” she said.

“Another hesitation has been the safety of EVs, but people are learning that EVs also undergo rigorous safety tests, just like any normal car. Additionally, through our training department, the ATL Academy, we’ve been working closely with the Jamaica Fire Brigade on how to extract persons from an EV in the event of an accident,” Taylor added.

ATL, which was last named the regional distributor for the BYD fleet of electric vehicles in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Cayman, Curaçao, Barbados, Aruba, Antigua, Saint Lucia, Guyana, and Suriname, also offers consumers a charger and complimentary installation at a location of their choice, whether at home or the office, as a sweetener for the purchase of any electric vehicle — be it plug-in, e-hybrid, or full EV.

ATL Automotive and Stewart’s Auto Sales Limited are two of the largest dealers of electric vehicles in Jamaica. However, efforts to get a comment from Duncan Stewart, general manager of affiliated company Stewart Motors Limited were unsuccessful up to press time.

EV brands carried by ATL Automotive include Audi, Porsche, BYD, BMW, and MINI. Meanwhile, Stewart’s Automotive represents brands such as Mercedes Benz, Land Rover, Jaguar, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, and Honda bikes.