JAGAS student one step closer to building electric car
Published:Friday | March 18, 2022 | 12:05 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
James Porteous, a 43-year-old student at the Jamaican-German Automotive School (JAGAS), is ready to build an electronic car in Jamaica.
That was one of the forces behind him enrolling into the institution and is now pursuing a HEART/NSTA Trust level-two course in motor repairs.
On Tuesday, with the commissioning of the school’s first electric vehicle (EV) charger, which was donated by the Government of Canada, Porteous is now one step closer to receiving local training on how to create and service an electronic vehicle’s engine.
“I’ve always wanted to become competent in the area of automotive mechanics and what led me to do this course was, oftentimes when I’ve taken my vehicle to service, I’m not pleased with it, so I figured why am I spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for work that’s not done properly, so I wanted to learn how to do it myself and also, the end game is to [build] electric mobility,” Porteous, who is a businessman, told The Gleaner immediately after giving the vote of thanks after the equipment was commissioned at JAGAS.
He continued, “My experience mainly is based on research, not hands-on per se. I’ve researched this for quite a while, because the goal of mine is actually to build an electric car [or] convert an internal combustion engine car into an electric vehicle, so coming to JAGAS will help me facilitate that.”
CHAMPION FOR ENVIRONMENT
Porteous told The Gleaner that he is “a big champion for clean, green energy and also the environment”.
“I don’t like to see trash on the road. I think that Jamaica is poor in recycling. I think that we can do better. With the push of clean green energy, we can limit our dependency on fossil fuel and create a better environment … so this is just me doing a small part,” he said.
He added, “I know the cost of it is prohibitive, but you have to start somewhere.”
Porteous hopes that with the formal training he will now receive with the EV technology, it will allow him to recreate a “pure clean energy car” that is green and electricity powered in 2023.
He already has a car being shipped to Jamaica which he will test his skills on to replace its internal combustion engine with an electric motor and battery to operate it, other than using fossil fuel such as diesel or gasoline.
In a year’s time, he will complete his level three training at JAGAS where he will have more time to focus on the goal of building his own electric car.
As a businessman, Porteous has been significantly affected since the onset of the pandemic.
Prior to enrolling at JAGAS, he was in sport merchandising, but with the closure of sporting events, his business suffered and he “pivoted into sanitising”.
“Now that COVID is going down as well, I now have to pivot again into something else,” he told The Gleaner.
This new area may very well be the creation of electric car in Jamaica.
Tanesha Chambers Taylor, institution manager, HEART/NSTA Trust JAGAS, is excited about the installation of the EV charger, because students with a green vision, as Porteous, will now have the opportunity to realise their dreams and not have to think of going overseas for training.
“This is a very wonderful feeling for JAGAS, in the sense that it now adds to the training programme that we have, while within the training programme there are modules that focus on electrical aspects of motor vehicles, but with what is trending now, where technology is concerned, it is very good for the institution, as well as for training because now we can train based on what is happening in the industry,” Chambers Taylor told The Glean er.
She continued, “And this training will add value to the trainees, in that they will be more marketable to the automotive industry.”
Chambers Taylor said the commissioning of the EV charger will help the institution to start offering training for electric vehicles, and special training will start next week, in partnership with the Canadian Embassy, to learn about the intricacies of an electronic vehicle.
She said Porteous has been one particular student who was previously exposed to EVs and brought it to the administrators’ attention of how critical it was to add that value to the training he was receiving with his classmates.