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High Costs Hamper Electric Cars in Caribbean
Caribbean islands offer an ideal market for electric cars—except for taxes that make EVs too expensive for most buyers, Reuters reports.
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The Caribbean islands offer an ideal market for electric cars—except for taxes that make EVs too expensive for most buyers, Reuters reports.
The islands offer ideal operating conditions for EVs. Traffic speeds are low, range anxiety is a nonissue, and abundant sunshine makes solar-powered charging facilities ideal.
A shift to EVs also would ease the islands’ costly dependence on imported gasoline, Reuters points out. But it says the high initial cost of electric vehicles, coupled with hefty import duties and a lack of regulatory support, are slowing the shift.
In Barbados, for example, a Nissan Leaf electric sedan retails for about $50,000, compared with $30,000 in the U.S. On some islands, tariffs can double the cost of an electric. Analysts note that many of the region’s island governments are reluctant to give up the revenue from high import taxes on any type of vehicle.
Still, some Caribbean countries, such as Tobago and Trinidad, have cut such taxes on most EVs, and Barbados is pondering a similar move. Reuters adds that electric utilities in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and St. Lucia are beginning to build charging grids.
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