Growth & Jobs | Gov’t to invest in EVs for public-sector transportation

The Government has completed the Electric Mobility Policy for public-sector transportation.

This was disclosed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who said the Government’s electric vehicle (EV) trial programme, now under way, will guide the conversion of state-owned fleets to EVs.

He was speaking at a ceremony to launch the Government’s EV trial programme, held at the Jaguar/Land Rover showroom on Arthur Wint Drive in Kingston on July 8.

There, the keys to the Build Your Dreams (BYD) electric vehicles were handed over by Stewart’s Automotive Group and EV distributors Flash Motors Company Limited, for five government ministries to conduct test drives over six weeks.

Holness said the trial programme will “give policymakers a first-hand understanding of what it means to drive and use an electric vehicle”.

“So, you want the policymakers to have an appreciation, and so having the vehicles in the ministries to be tested ... I think that’s very useful for the implementation of the policy,” he said.

He further pointed out that the programme will assist in the Government’s data-gathering, while it builds out an “ecosystem around electric vehicles”.

“It is not intended that consumers, on their own, decide to bring in an EV and we don’t have provisions for charging [or] understand how those vehicles work, specific to the Jamaican terrain,” he said.

“The Government can accelerate this by being a ‘first mover’ and the creator of a critical mass of demand. Once our policymakers become advocates for electric vehicles, then you will start to see [an acceleration], because there is a genuine belief that this is the right direction to go,” he continued.

On that note, he commended the private sector for making the investment in the “electric mobility ecosystem”.

“We are seeing private-sector initiative and investments in charging stations, training and the coming together for the repair and maintenance of the vehicles,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Stewart’s Automotive Group, in partnership with Flash Motors Company Limited, is the only dealership which currently sells EVs in the country. The company has so far sold approximately 20 vehicles, with an estimated 100 more in stock.

JIS