The quiet rise of the electric car in the Bahamas
For a brief moment, electric cars found themselves at the centre of a national conversation, because they were mentioned during a press conference following another round of frustrating power outages in New Providence.
The debate quickly moved beyond electricity and raised a more interesting question: Just how many electric vehicles are actually on Bahamian roads?
The answer may surprise many people.
According to Pia and John Farmer, owners of Easy Car Sales and The Bahamas’ authorised BYD dealer, there are an estimated 2,500 electric vehicles currently on the nation’s roads. There is no official government count, but even by industry estimates, electric vehicles remain a small fraction of the country’s overall vehicle fleet.
Yet their presence is becoming increasingly noticeable.
Walk through a supermarket parking lot, pull into a shopping plaza or drive through western New Providence, and the quiet hum of electric vehicles is no longer unusual. It is gradually becoming part of everyday Bahamian life.
Recent buyer Neko Gibson shared the numbers behind his purchase of a Changan Deepal S05, offering a glimpse into how many consumers are approaching the market.
He purchased the vehicle for $17,300, paid $3,200 to ship it to the Bahamas, and another $4,462 in duty and VAT.
His total landed cost came to roughly $25,000.
The same model, he said, sells locally for about $40,000.
When Gibson visited a dealership in Nassau, only one vehicle remained on the lot.
Whether that reflects limited inventory or growing demand, it points to a market that appears to be gaining momentum.
Dealers say today’s buyers are driven less by novelty than by long-term savings.
According to Easy Car Sales, electric vehicles can cost about 65 percent less to own over their lifetime than comparable gasoline-powered vehicles because of lower fuel costs and reduced maintenance.
For households feeling the squeeze of rising living expenses, that calculation is becoming harder to ignore.
The global trend is moving in the same direction.
Last year, roughly one in every four new vehicles sold worldwide was fully electric, signalling that the transition is already happening.
The Bahamian government expressed its embrace of that future.
Under its Nationally Determined Contributions submitted to the United Nations, the Government has committed to a goal that by 2035, half of all new vehicles sold should be fully electric, while another 30 percent should be hybrids.
If those ambitions are realised, today’s estimated 2,500 electric vehicles will represent only the beginning.
For now, the electric vehicle remains something of a quiet revolution.
