While owners of Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) are ready to make the switch to electric vehicles, discussions with Government have stalled.
That is according to chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Roy Raphael who is urging Government to come back to the table as any transition can only be done with the administration’s assistance.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Raphael said there had been high hope that the sector would have been given the opportunity to purchase electric vehicles by now.
However, he said previous discussions had yielded nothing so far.
“We’ve had a number of meetings with the Ministry of Energy about moving from fossil fuel to electric buses. We got serious enough that we would have brought in a representative from the BYD [Build Your Dreams manufacturing company]. The Government would have also had a meeting with them and received 33 [electric] buses and are looking to get some more.
“But we’re saying that while we would have gone into the full process of consultation, discussion and so on, it appears as if we are not moving anywhere. We’re not moving from where we are and some of us believe it is just a talk shop and we would like to see some movement, especially among the PSV industry,” Raphael said.
“It is a very costly operation for us to transition…so what we are basically calling for is the Government to speak to us. Let us have a discussion to see where we are as far as our association is concerned. At one time we were hearing that the Ministry of Energy was interested through the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in assisting us with a bus that will be part of a pilot project going forward but we have not heard anything more on it.”
Raphael said with over 800 PSVs and close to 10,000 taxis and hired cars on the road, the sector had to be among the first in the transition.
He said the rising costs of fuel was also one of the reasons why AOPT was eager to make the switch to electric vehicles.
“What has happened is since the fuel tax was introduced we have seen a rapid increase in the amount of fuel that we have to put in. At one time we could have put in close to $100 a day in a ZR and now we have to look at $150 or even more, so moving to that level will save us significantly,” Raphael said.
“It is up to Government but we are ready. The cost to move from fossil fuel to electric vehicles is going to be a very costly operation for us and we are going to need the help of Government through the help of the IDB.” (RB)
The post PSVs ready to go electric appeared first on Barbados Today.