The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

In the 2022/2023 Budget Communication, Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis announced that his government will reduce the duty rate on electric vehicles valued under $70,000 to 10 percent. Electric vehicles over $70,000 will be reduced to 25 percent. I read in one of the dailies that sales for these vehicles are increasing, which is probably due to the historic oil inflation caused by the anti-fossil fuel policies of President Joe Biden and the Russian/Ukrainian War. Before well-to-do Bahamians in Nassau and Grand Bahama invest their hard-earned money into these vehicles, there’s something important they must factor into consideration.

Electric vehicles are an electrocution hazard like any other electronic device that uses significant amounts of electricity. For instance, a residential electric clothes dryer uses between 1,500 and 5,000 watts. Like electric vehicles while charging, dryers run on 240 volts with a 30-amp breaker on a single circuit installed for it. Similar to an electric dryer, electric vehicles are energised on 240-volt chargers and use just over 7,000 watts of electricity. No sane person would attempt to tamper with an electric dryer or any other appliance while ankle deep in water. Such an individual runs the risk of being electrocuted, which brings me back to my original point about electric vehicles in flood-prone Nassau and Grand Bahama. Just this past weekend parts of Grand Bahama and Bimini were flooded up to nearly 11 inches of rain by Tropical Cyclone Alex.

Several weeks ago, many communities in Nassau were also flooded. Understand, the two rainstorms were not even tropical storms, let alone a cat 4 or 5 storm that usually is accompanied by a storm surge. In low lying Grand Bahama and New Providence, flooding is inevitable. Now imagine a family of five in Pinewood Gardens during a cat 4 storm attempting to escape the flooding in their community by driving their Tesla Model Y through 3 feet of water, which is something US manufacturers strongly advise against, as water serves as a conductor of electricity. If water gets into the Tesla vehicle, there’s a good chance the family might be electrocuted to death. It would also pose a significant risk to others wading through the same water near the vehicle. Electric vehicles need a significant amount of current in order to rotate the driveshaft. The manufacturers of these models obviously were not thinking about low-lying New Providence and Grand Bahama.

Even if the vehicles are reinforced and sealed to prevent an electrocution, everything that man has invented is subject to the second law of thermodynamics. We see this everyday with the used cars imported into the country. Bahamians prefer to purchase used vehicles, which are far more affordable than brand new ones. Will the government thoroughly examine each used electric vehicle to ensure that they are safe? With our track record of slackness and alleged corruption in the civil service, it is not too difficult to envisage compromised vehicles slipping through the net, which will endanger the lives of many Bahamians during a rainstorm.

In view of the foregoing, it is my opinion that electric vehicles are not safe for Nassau and Grand Bahama.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport,

Grand Bahama,

June 8, 2022.