The Tribune

A Bahamian electric vehicle (EV) dealer says it is on target for a 30 percent sales increase in 2024 while revealing there is “no rush” to construct its planned headquarters on the East-West Highway.

Pia Farmer, partner at Easy Car Sales, told Tribune Business that this weekend’s upcoming “soft opening” of its second location at the same headquarters site could boost sales further by providing clients with a destination more central and accessible than its present Gladstone Road base.

Asserting that the dealership has “come a long way” since it first began selling electric vehicles in October 2020, she added that it has grown from an initial six-strong workforce to 28 staff with another six set to undergo training this week and take the total to 34.

And, with Easy Car Sales “continuing to hit our targets every year”, Ms Farmer told this newspaper she was confident the “noticeable slowdown” in government purchases of electric vehicles this year is a temporary blip and the administration will resume its previous acquisition place.

Affirming that the dealership with have an official opening of its new location, set to be called EV City and situated at the East-West Highway and Abundant Life Road junction, by September’s end, she added that the initial launch had been delayed a week by last weekend’s bad weather and heavy rainfall.

However, “all the signage will go up and we’ll definitely be open by next Saturday”, with Ms Farmer saying customers will be able to access the site via the service road that serves the Solomon’s food store rather than either of the main roads.

“We’re ready to go,” she told Tribune Business. “We have outgrown Gladstone Road, need more space and want to make it more accessible to people not able to come to Gladstone Road. You can come there [East-West Highway] and do a test drive. You can find out more about electric vehicles, and we will shortly start doing more service work in that location.

“The headquarters will be built behind where you see all the cars now. We have it designed now and will take our time to build it. In the meantime, we have two locations. You can come to Gladstone Road or come to Abundant Life Road on the highway. People can see all our models, all our vehicles.”

With the Ministry of Works and its contractors set to start work on expanding and upgrading Gladstone Road shortly, Ms Farmer voiced fears that access to Easy Car Sales’ inaugural location would also be negatively impacted by roadwork-related diversions and road cut-offs.

As for plans to develop a new “multi-million” headquarters at it new East-West Highway location, she added that much work remains to being this vision to reality including obtaining all the necessary construction and environmental-related permits via the Ministry of Works, Town Planning Committee and Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP).

“We have to do various topography analysis and other things by engineers,” Ms Farmer explained. “Then we have to get the building engineers involved and go out to bid for the steel building. We don’t think we’ll start construction until next year. It all depends on the ease of doing business, but we’re not in a rush.

“We will accommodate more people now at the second location. As we need it, we will build it. We also have to go and find the money. We have to go out and sort the finances out. It’s already designed. It’s going to be great. For now, baby steps. Four years ago, in October 2020, we started with electric vehicles exclusively. We’ve come a long way in those four years, and it takes time to build a headquarters.

“We have grown exponentially in the last four years. We continue to hit our targets every year. I think, though, I could say that the adoption of electric vehicles by the Government has slowed down although I don’t know why. They say they are committed to electric vehicles but it has slowed down this year,” Ms Farmer continued. 

“We expect it to pick up again in due course. The only downside has been in adoption of electric vehicles by the Ministry of Finance. It has to do with finances, I guess. They are committed but there has been a noticeable slowdown this year in the adoption of electric vehicles by the Government.”

Ms Farmer, though, said other buyer sources such as businesses and ordinary consumers will more than likely offset this slowdown. “I think we are a bit over last year,” she added of sales. “I haven’t looked at the figures. I don’t obsess over the figures. I’m not so concerned about counting the numbers. It has grown, and it looks like we are going to hit our targets for this year.

“We are targeting a 30 percent increase from last year. We’ll see where we end up. We have the big auto show in October and we’ll see how the additional location affects sales because we are now much more accessible. We are offering more models with a wide price range at two locations.”

Ms Farmer said Easy Car Sales’ lowest price point is $35,000, and she added that the dealership has sufficient inventory to meet demand. “We’re prepared,” she added. “That was our biggest challenge in the beginning because we had to find money to pay for the vehicles and their importation. When you bring in 100 cars, it’s a lot of money. It took us a lot of time to get ahead of the curve, and we’re there now.”