Dominica’s only electric car on the road 

Electric car at Trafalgar

The future is here; is it for you?

While gliding down from Trafalgar falls to the gentle sounds of nature, as the smell of fresh air fills Dominica’s only electric car on the road, you can only hear the wind in the trees. Like a magic carpet, the Nissan Leaf is  building up power in the her battery and generating interest from passers-by.

Dominica’s first electric car was owned by Domlec, the island’s power company. Unfortunately, it was in an accident and is no longer on the road. Dominica’s  second electric car is owned by an off grid eco lodge Caapi Cottage Retreats, above Cochrane village. It is a 2015 Nissan Leaf purchased, online. It is second-hand from Japan, just US$8000. The cost to charge the car is just less than $10 EC dollars (or roughly $3 USD), if you plug into DOMLEC. Caapi Cottage Retreats uses renewable energy and powers the car for almost free.

The first question people ask is “But what about charging it where can I charge the car”. You can charge this car at home by merely plugging it into your house, like a cell phone. You can also charge your car at anyone else’s house who lets you plug it in. So, there are literally hundreds of places across Dominica where you can charge an electric vehicle. Far more options (to charge an electric vehicle), then there are gas stations (to fill the tank of a gas vehicle).

OK, but “How far can you drive on one charge in Dominica? The rating of this electric car is about 135 km for each charge, however that is on a flat road. Dominica is not flat. On our first test drive in the Leaf we drove from Cochrane across Pond Cassie and to the Kalinago Territory and back to Cochrane on one charge, with a 30% power still in the car. And that was with four people in the car. Second test we drove from Cochrane through Pond Cassie then north to Marigot to the airport. When we arrived at the airport we still had a 90% charge in the battery, why? Because the Nissan Leaf charges the batteries as you are traveling downhill. Every time you break or glide downhill the power is transferred into a generator,  turned into electricity and put back into the batteries of the car. At the airport, we turned and drove all the way back to Cochrane and arrived an hour later with 20% of charge left in the car. This car should be able to circumnavigate the island on one charge!

The next question people ask of the only electric car in Dominica is, “What about spare parts and maintenance?” Most people don’t know that an electric car has very few moving parts. (less than 150 in an electric car) (A combustion engine car has over 30,000 moving parts) There is no carburetor, no gears, no timing belt, no water pump, oil filters, pistons nor any of the other things that break down with a combustion engine car. For comparison; a gas engine typically has 80+ moving parts, whereas an electric engine has 2 or 3 moving parts. This is why an electric car requires very little maintenance, if any, during its lifetime. So, not only do you save on buying gas (roughly 2000 EC dollars a year, but you can also save on all of those maintenance cost. Even when you plug into DOMLEC, your electric bill may increase slightly, but you still save about 50 % to 70 % on fuel costs. Should there be a problem, then technician may have to come from outside. Barbados has full service technicians for the Nissan Leaf, who could travel to Dominica for repairs, if needed.

“How much did it cost and what kind of duties did you have to pay on your electric car?” Previously owned Nissan Leafs are available from Japan for as little as  $7000 to $9000 USD.

Unfortunately Dominica is far behind much of the world when it comes to legislation and duties on electric vehicles. We have no special concessions for electric vehicles yet, or even for hybrids. Many countries have very favorable concessions in order to support the transition to electric cars. Trinidad and Tobago along with Barbados and Turks and Caicos,  Cayman Islands and Jamaica all offer incentives to bring in electric cars.

In Dominica, we were able to present a special request to cabinet and the vehicle was granted the same status as any other vehicle owned and given a 50% reduction on import duties, under an existing program under the Ministry of Finance.

Hopefully, we will be able to come up with a policy in Dominica to help increase the usage of electric vehicles on our NatureIsland. We need to move away from burning fossil fuels as much as possible, given the reality of climate change and the instability of oil the supply in the region and around the world. As we in Dominica rely heavily on importing oil, the ability to charge our vehicles from renewable energy would be a wonderful step forward in the right direction to becoming the world’s first climate resilient country!

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

29 Comments

  1. Me
    December 1, 2019

    Well since i heard in the news of african children are being slaved for the parts needed for electric cars..i think ill pass

  2. Just me
    April 18, 2019

    The fact widely being spread that electric cars are “cleaner” is not necessarily true, the return on energy of a solar panel is 5-7 years the mining of cobalt and lithium for the batteries is a very nasty business, so we basically shift our pollution to another place on the world.
    Dominica is the perfect country for solar, every day there is sun to generate electricity, price of solar panels is dropping very fast, and battery storage to use the electricity during the night is widely available.
    Start from scratch and imply microgrids spread on the island will be the ultimate solution.
    Concern is hurricanes, the cost of replacing a solar panel field have to be added to the electricity somehow.
    At some point there will be no alternative, going green will cost money, a lot of money.

  3. Just Me
    April 18, 2019

    Let me kick a little bit so people get more knowledge about electrical cars in general.
    First thought, where is the electricity generated, Domlec is running 3 big diesel generators with no proper scrubber to clean the exhaust gasses, so talking about less polution is a no go.
    Another thought, let’s say the government want to go fully “green” they have to generate the electricity by solar, wind, ocean wave, very nice solutions, cost a lot of money to gear up, so your electricity bill will rise, green energy is not for free.
    Another big cost is the grid, there is no way Domlec’s grid is capable of charging all those electric cars, so that need a scale unto.
    In Europe the intention is the same, we all have to electric, electric cars, electric heating, electric cooking, shut down coal/nuclear power plants, but in no way our politics have any clue how to or have the knowledge.
    Laws say we have to go electric in 2025-2030 the grid is just not ready, and need way more time.

  4. Wake UP
    April 18, 2019

    Dominica is REAL THIRD WORLD at its best . This has got to be the last country on the planet proud of its first electric car in 2019 . The world has far gone past that and are now moving towards autonomous vehicles . Yes Dominique nu pa feb.

  5. Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
    April 18, 2019

    You know Dominicans are so ignorant it is not funny, what is so exciting about that piece of crap?

    There are so many of that all over the place, they do not make the news: for someone to make a comparisons with  Henry Ford Model T in the twenty-first century is simply backwardness.

    The Ford Model T is an automobile produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car that opened travel to the common middle-class American; some of this was because of Ford’s efficient fabrication, including assembly line production instead of individual hand crafting.

    The Ford Model T was named the most influential car of the 20th century.

    There is nothing one deem influential about that thing, it is a toy running of a battery, assuming the technology was developed in Dominica, that would be something to be elated about!

  6. April 18, 2019

    It’s not de only one on Island. I saw one In possie sometime.

  7. jaded
    April 17, 2019

    For a country that aims to be the first climate resistant island in the Caribbean it is disappointing that Dominica does not yet have a policy on the importation of electric or hybrid motor vehicles.

    • RandyX
      April 19, 2019

      Climate resistant is nothing but clever Skerrit talk. If he was serious about it he would scrap the import duty or at least half of it for e-cars or hybrids. But you see when it comes to Mister one must never forget: TALK IS CHEAP!

  8. Paulo
    April 17, 2019

    Car dealers in Dominica: allow a few of your service technicians to get the appropriate training for electric cars and this will take care of the need to bring in techs from outside and save the owners some $$ .

    • Johnny Jno Baptiste
      April 19, 2019

      Students studying electrical engineering .. this is yo ur chance

  9. April 17, 2019

    This is a step in the right direction.

    A further step would be the design of a version suited for tropical climates and small island terrain. I refer to: minimum gadgetry, high ground clearance, rugged suspension and steering, longevity of body work and easy maintenance.

    With today’s diesel and gasoline powered vehicles it is not the engine but the gadgetry, suspension and body work that is the first to fail.

    The bumper/fender on the original Model T Ford was attached by two bolts and designed so that it could be straightened out by the owner at the side of the road. Try doing that with a Nissan!

  10. Calibishie Warrior
    April 17, 2019

    Personally .. i would reduce or eliminate duties from electric buses as opposed to cars. We need to be promoting public transport along with renewable energy for transportation … simultaneously reducing the environmental impact and carbon footprint of vehicles in the Nature island of the World .. Mama Waitukubuli. Then if we can use geothermal and/hydro to power these vehicles.. we are well on the way to eliminating the consumption of fossil fuels. That is the real route to climate resilience. (pun intended)

  11. Calibishie Warrior
    April 17, 2019

    And that is more dangerous from extricating a person from a burning vehicle … how exactly?

    • save the planet stop producing electric cars
      April 18, 2019

      in all developed countries there are special techs trained in the rescue services to deal with crashes on these cars. after an accident in one of these no matter hw quick the rescue services arrive on site they have to wait on the tech before they decide to cut u out of the car . worse is if the car is on fire they cannot use none of the existing car fire fighting methods to extinguish the flame. and thats for both electric or hybrid vehicles. the high voltage and the materials used in the batteries. widespread use of those vehicles in dca would require a complete shattering and rebuilding of every form of our rescue services on the island. not to mention that which mechanic in dca you going to get to work on a high voltage battery system. oh and dont forget those batteries ware out on an average of 5 years and need replacing . oh i forgot thats better cause last time i checked my 2002 car still works just fine after 17 years and dont need a new power plant after 5 year

      • Child of Itassi
        April 18, 2019

        A donkey would be a better argument than your 2002 car.

        Along with the numerous parts including the battery which you have replaced over the 17 years, if you bought 10 gallons of gas every month you would have used up 37 of the 55 gallon drums of gas plus quite a bit of oil.

        Dominica doesn’t have oil but free electricity to charge batteries can be harnessed from a few solar panels; and disruptive solutions are inevitable, like the all electric cars and aircraft seen here:

        https://www.eviation.co/alice/

      • April 20, 2019

        Child of Itassi has a valid point in reference to the donkey. Four legged modes of transport have the advantage for creating their own new models. Fuel is cheap (grass and oats) and servicing is limited to shoeing.

        O dear, I am sure the above will be taken out of context, as was my reference in an earlier comment to the practicability of the Model T Ford.

        Like “save the planet, etc.” my restored fifty year old Land Rover is continues to give faithful service and has begun to appreciate, rather than depreciate, in value.

    • Timothy Speaks
      April 18, 2019

      There is very little danger of electrocution from an electric car. It is not recommended to cut into the battery pack which is in the bottom or floor of the car. You would need to go out of your way to make contact with yourself and the possative and negative terminals of the battery in order to produce a shock. The rest of the car has no high voltage risk. It is not a good idea to cut into a gas tank either which is also on the bottom of a gas car.

  12. Sylvester Cadette
    April 17, 2019

    DNO I give you A++++ for this article.
    This must be a major policy objective by our policy makers to have at least 40% of our private vehicles imported from 2019 onwards on renewables by 2030. once they meet standards and suit the functional operations for which the owner will utilize them.
    We shout out so much about Nature Isle – we should be leading in certain areas once the technology is tried and proven and the price is right.
    SOLAR, WIND, Geothermal and Hydro-electricity should be our defining attribute as the Nature Isle.

  13. Country First
    April 17, 2019

    A United Workers Party government WILL make it cost effective for Dominicans to want to go green. Count on it.
    =)

  14. Jolly Roger
    April 17, 2019

    Until I see it perform on Cochrane’s front road, not the back road (as Cochrane people call it), I will reserve my enthusiasm.

  15. derp
    April 17, 2019

    It is second-hand from Japan, just US$8000, yes but most people will pay twice that amount and more to clear it in Dominica, you got a 50% concession imo there should be no duties/tax on electric vehicles coming into Dominica. Nature island my foot all talk and no real actions, having people suffering under some kinda crazy import taxes….

  16. Child of Itassi
    April 17, 2019

    As the “Nature Island”, we should be leading the way instead of following others with incentives for renewable energy starting with Education. We have sufficient wind, sunlight and ocean currents to be able to setup charging stations all over Dominica.
    Recently the government gave computer tablets to students all over the Island. Were any of them used for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) projects or just Facebook? Ask around, you might be surprised at what you hear.

  17. malick
    April 17, 2019

    Very interesting….and impressive statistics.

    I think this is the first statistical data I have seen for an electric car usage for Dominica.

    Please continue to post more data as you continue to use this car here. Also, can you share some more info on the servicing from Barbados. Since purchasing this car, have you ever had to call them to came in to do servicing.

    What was the cost?

    For charging the car, do you need special receptacles? Was the charging cables and plugs additional to the car purchase, or were they inclusive in the price paid for the car?

    I would appreciate your feedback on these questions !!!

    • Timothy Speaks
      April 17, 2019

      We have not needed to do any servicing and we are counting on the fact that it needs very little servicing. Yes it would be expensive and the fasilities to do major work are not available here. We do not need additional charging ports. The standard charger comes with the car. We plug into a standard wall socket at 230 volts and top up every night for about an hour. No waiting in gas lines.

      • grace
        March 21, 2023

        Good to know….looking forward to reading other testimony of electric cars owners here….thanks in advance :wink:

  18. Not A Herd Follower
    April 17, 2019

    Interesting to read this article. I agree with most of the points here, especially the need to have a govt policy on the importation of electrical vehicles. I am especially glad that the charging on regular DOMLEC electricity does not significantly spike the household’s electricity bill. But the low cost of regular maintenance is negated by the high cost of bringing in a technician from Barbados to do major repair works. We need to have not just a policy but also technicians trained in servicing such vehicles.

    • Zandoli
      April 18, 2019

      The effort must be coordinated. We only need technicians if we have a large enough fleet of electric vehicles to maintain. Therefore if Autotrade plans to bring a fleet of electric cars, it would make sense for them to train their technicians to repair them.

  19. April 17, 2019

    Beautiful last sentence ending that should quickly touch the hearts of the movers and shakers into Dominica becoming the first resilient country in the world.

  20. SN
    April 17, 2019

    First responders must be trained to interact with electric vehicles because electrocution is a possibility when extricating persons from a mangled vehicle.

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available