Barbadians’ appetite for hybrid vehicles is growing even in light of the country’s push for greater use of electric vehicles, and Governor of the Central Bank Cleviston Haynes expects the demand to accelerate as a result of lower import tariffs which took effect on Monday.Noting that transportation was a focal point for Barbados in its quest to transition to 100 per cent reliance on renewable sources of energy by 2030, Haynes expressed concern that while the demand for electric vehicles was also on the rise, it was still very slow.According to Central Bank data there was a spike in battery electric vehicles in the third quarter of 2020. However, since 2021, hybrid vehicles have been in higher demand.“The quantity of renewable energy vehicles as a share of total number of vehicles imported has been steadily increasing over the last two years, equivalent on average to about 17 per cent of all cars imported,” said the Central Bank.“However, this growth is primarily linked to an increase in the domestic demand for hybrid vehicles. Out of the total alternative energy vehicles imported, 74.6 per cent were hybrids, 24.7 per cent were battery electric and the remainder were either fuel cell or natural gas vehicles,” it noted.
