Posts in category: Latest News

PRIME MINISTER Andrew Holness is banking on the conversion to electric of Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) buses to solve the fuel pilferage problem plaguing the state-owned entity.

“It is the intention of Government obviously to lead the way in converting many of our fleets to electric and certainly, if you were to do that to JUTC, that there would be immediate significant savings and I am not going to go too much into that … I see everybody smiling because you know that some of the things that we are losing, we won’t be losing it any more,” Holness said at the recent launch of the Government’s Electric Vehicle Test Driving Programme held at the Jaguar/Land Rover Showroom on Arthur Wint Drive, Kingston 5.

“So, it is our intention to as soon as we can, and as soon as the system is advanced and in place, to convert to electric vehicles.”

Under an initiative funded by the Inter-American Development Bank, five government ministries are conducting test drives of EVs supplied by the Stewart Automotive Group over six weeks, in partnership with Flash Motors, regional suppliers of the all-electric Build Your Dreams (BYD) motor vehicles and the Jamaica Public Service Company’s Charge ‘N’ Go network.

At last Friday’s sitting of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), JUTC Managing Director Paul Abrahams said that the company has been battling a “very big challenge with pilferage” of fuel from its inception.

The Jamaican-German Automotive School (JAGAS) has been outfitted with an electric vehicle (EV) charging station, which will be utlised in equipping local automatics with EV skills.

The station, donated by the Canadian High Commission, was officially handed over and commissioned into service, during a ceremony at JAGAS’ Maxfield Avenue location on Tuesday (March 15)

It will support the provision of technical and mechanical skills to strengthen Jamaica’s capacity-building programme for the Electric Mobility Market.

Chairman of the HEART/NSTA Trust Board of Directors, Professor Alvin Wint, expressed gratitude for the donation, which he noted, supports the entity’s efforts to pivot away from internal combustion engines to EV, which is the future.

“We want to ensure that our trainees are facilitated by equipment that is state-of-the art and that they, themselves, are in a position to contribute to the improvement of our skillsets here in Jamaica,” he said.

“We are about alignment at this organisation; we are going to align our training needs with the needs of the Jamaican workforce,” he stressed.

Professor Wint said the donation will help the institution to continue the tradition of being the leader in vocational training in Jamaica and across the Caribbean.

Canadian High Commissioner to Jamaica, Her Excellency Emina Tudakovic, in her remarks said she is looking forward to the “expected upskilling opportunities resulting from this cooperation”.

Through a joint initiative between Canada and Jamaica, 35 auto mechanics from the HEART/NSTA-operated facility and other technical institutions in Jamaica will be engaged in a training course on Electric Vehicle Fundamentals Charging Infrastructure.

This two-part initiative will be administered in partnership with the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona and the University of Technology (UTech).

The High Commissioner said that the collaboration between Canada and Jamaica continues to strengthen, noting that both countries have been long-standing partners in education, training, development, trade, defence and business.

“We look forward to continuing to work with… the public and private sectors as we pursue bilateral relations on international partnership opportunities in new and emerging industries such as climate focus, clean technologies, electric transport, and the training associated with these new careers,” she said.

Citing a need to diversify, renewable energy company Wigton Windfarm Limited is entering the electric vehicle market via acquisition of a stake in an entity called Flash Holdings Limited.

Wigton’s 21 per cent stake in Flash, a holding company registered in St Lucia, will give it an equivalent share in its wholly owned subsidiary Flash Motors Company Limited. The cost of the transaction was not disclosed, nor were the other shareholders in Flash Holdings.

Flash Motors plans to sell EVs in Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana, said Wigton Managing Director Earl Barrett.

“I am very optimistic that the market will make EV the car of choice in the region, and we want to be a part of that,” Barrett said in a Financial Gleaner interview.

Wigton will “observe activities in Barbados” in order to gauge the EV market, but is already of the view that the high double-digit EV adoption rates make entry competitive.

Barrett declined to disclose the car brand to be sold until the press launch later in the year, but said Flash would be operating in the ‘new car’ market, and not the pre-owned segment.

Major automakers worldwide are in the process of phasing out gas engines for electric batteries, with some looking at a full switchover within two to three decades.

Tesla, the EV market leader, continues to sell at luxury prices in the region, and other EVs typically cost more than gas-fuelled cars; but Barrett said Flash’s cars will enter the market at a manageable price level.

Jamaica expects its population of EVs to grow to about 50,000 units in a decade, or about 12 per cent of the vehicles on its streets.

Right now, the local market is tiny, at about 250 to 300 units of EVs and hybrids combined, but Wigton, once a state-owned company that was privatised via the stock market two years ago, is entering the business just as the Jamaican government announced it would be reducing duties on EV imports, from 30 per cent to 10 per cent, to make EVs more affordable. The incentive will only apply to 1,000 units in order to contain the tax losses.

Wigton operates a wind farm in central Jamaica, which generates and sells electricity to the national power grid.

“The initiative forms part of Wigton’s diversification drive towards other renewable energy ventures to augment its core wind turbine operations,” said Barrett regarding the investment in Flash.

The company will also consider setting up EV charging stations, which may require it to buy electricity from the grid to sell to EV car owners.

Wigton has been hunting new sources of revenue, while dealing with various pressures on the business, including a lower rate paid for its power supplies by electricity grid operator JPS, from 13 US cents per kilowatt hour to 5.6 US cents, since 2020; declining output from some of its wind turbines that are nearing their end of life in 2024; and no opportunity to add renewable energy capacity since 2016.

“Wigton has put renewable energy on the grid, but nothing has happened since 2016. It stands to reason that Wigton had to diversify what we do,” said Barrett. “Wigton has to grow to survive,” he said.

The pace at which renewable energy is added to the energy grid is controlled by the Jamaican government, which has no set schedule for its tenders for development of new capacity.

Over nine months to December 2021, Wigton earned revenue of $1.58 billion, down from $1.94 billion a year earlier, while its profit halved to $277.5 million from $591.7 million.