Jamaica to lead in in ownership of Electrical vehicles

The government consultant said that Jamaica would be taking over from all others country in the field of electric vehicles adoption. As a comparison between the Caribbean countries in this field, Jamaica is at the back positions that it will soon overtake.

Valentine Fagan, electricity-generation consultant of Utilities Regulation, shared his views that Barbados, with registering 400 electric vehicles, has become the leading nation in the Caribbean region. The Cayman island has also been the runners among the 4 Caribbean countries after registering 160 electric vehicles in 2019.

Fagan also said that based on the data they had received from Tax Administration Jamaica in 2018, only 10 EVs were registered, this is why they were really lagging behind.

However, Fagan said that the situation was not lost as Jamaica was one of the leaders in renewable energy deployment. Hence, they expect to take that lead in terms of EVs approval.

The electricity consultant, who addressed the OUR working party that was liable for the research and development of a consultation document, “Proposals for a Regulatory Framework to Facilitate the Penetration of electrical Vehicles”, was also attending the virtual meeting.

Fagan said that they could not derive the benefits unless they had the vehicles, so to ensure that the cars were coming at least on parity with the conventional cars, they require a consideration of fiscal incentives to balance the price differential to get an EV as against an ICE.

Among the incentives recommended are a discount of the import duties and other compulsory payments, reducing the overall Consumption Tax and Special Consumption Tax, tax credits to working EVs, and therefore the provision of state grants to help with EV purchase.

Fagan highlighted that regulatory policies, lack of consumer information and availability of consumer information are the main point about which government must be concerned. These are the factors affecting the purchase of electric vehicles in Jamaica.

Fagan noted that car manufacturers around the world said that they would transfer their production from ICE vehicles to electric vehicles.

At last, Fagan warned that, in fact, the United Kingdom had indicated that from 2030, they would stop the sales of ICEs, and that would be having a significant result on the market.