The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

An auto dealer said electric car sales had enabled the business to shrug off COVID-19's impact, as he asserted: “The buzz is out.”

Ian Johnson, Easy Car Sales' general manager, said the pandemic restrictions had not really affected his business apart from the initial lockdown in March and April. He added that consumers had still been purchasing cars, while the social distancing restrictions and other sanitary measures had not presented a problem.

Predicting that 2021 will be “OK” if present business volumes continue, Mr Johnson added: “Early in the pandemic, it was a little rough like in March and April. But other than that, things picked up from then. Customers still come in and, you know, we do our social distancing and safety protocols. People still come, they look at the vehicles and they decide what they want to do.”

Crediting the company’s transition to electric cars over gasoline-powered models for this year’s sales returns, Mr Johnson added: “Last year, we were more in the gas car market. So this year, being more electric, I think with us being one of the only ones selling electric cars things have been maybe on the same even keel as last year.

"The buzz is out there about the electric cars now, so I wouldn’t say we had a bad year compared to 2019.”