Improve EV charging facilities

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Investing in solar and batteries for home power and/or an electric vehicle (EV) for transportation are economically justifiable in Jamaica, where electricity costs approximately US$0.40/kWh and gasolene at J$200/litre.

My recently bought EV is supposed to have a range of 400 kilometre; however, I can now confidently state it’s only 245 km. I had initially assumed that my city driving was the reason for the low mileage, but confirmed the range recently by fully charging the car at home and doing a country run to St Ann’s Bay and back. The 65 km range balance, plus 90 km each direction, confirms 245 km.

The opportunity for EVs in Jamaica is dramatically limited by the dearth of charging infrastructure across the island. This past Ash Wednesday we drove our other car, which is a hybrid, to Montego Bay to see, among other things, what charging infrastructure was available there. We found that there were only two locations offered by Evergo – by Pier 1 and the Texaco at Fairfield – adjacent to a Scotchies. The latter has a fast-charge station (50 kW), so to top up my car for the return journey to Kingston would take about one hour. The key point is, if I wanted to visit Montego Bay from Kingston in my EV, I would need to plan lunch at Scotchies to make that work and that option not great, given that my wife is a vegetarian.

I am a big advocate for EVs in Jamaica, but would like to use this opportunity to point out to policymakers/investors that the success of this initiative will only be achieved when adequate numbers of charging infrastructure are put in place. They should be near to places where people spend time while their EVs get charged (up to five hours, depending on the station). So, EVs will remain, for the time being, somewhat of a fad in Jamaica, since it’s not yet convenient for all occasions. Only the lucky among us that can afford two cars (one being run by fossil fuel) will be able to use an EV.

DAVID M