For the most part, Visham Babwah – president of the Trinidad and Tobago Automotive Dealers Association (TTADA) and owner of P&V Marketing on Mulchan Seuchan Road, Chaguanas, spends his days helping people decide what automobiles to buy that are comfortable, affordable and up to date. At his dealership, he would most likely be seen speaking and smiling with couples, young and old, looking for a car for their families, or to young people hoping to buy their very first car.
But Babwah is more than a car salesman. By most definitions, he could be considered a pioneer in the drive to reduce emissions from automobiles. The 57-year-old in an interview with Business Day said he has been a "car man" all his life. His love for cars and foresight led him to become a leading figure in the sales of hybrid and electric vehicles in TT.
Babwah: Cars are my life
Babwah grew up admiring his brother, who became a mechanic at a young age. He learnt about cars from him – the maintenance and repairs – and at about age 20, started his first company which imported and distributed car parts.
At 26, Babwah' family opened a separate business manufacturing and distributing car filters. But when the dollar was floated in the early 1990s the family business like many others folded.
[caption id="attachment_923743" align="alignnone" width="1024"] P&V Marketing owner Visham Babwah shows what’s under the hood of the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle. - Angelo Marcelle[/caption]
“A lot of businesses had to fold because local businesses could not compete with vehicles coming in from China and so on. So we had to shut down,” he said.
But when former prime minister Basdeo Panday decided to open the foreign-used car market, thousands of businesses popped up almost overnight. Babwah and his family also got into the foreign-used car business.
“That is one of the best economic decisions taken by a prime minister of this country to date,” Babwah told Business Day. “Before that there was a monopoly on cars in the country and every other day when you went to buy a car from one of those franchise dealers you would face a raise in prices. You also had the assembly of cars here but it was very sub-standard. You would have a lot of leaks and issues with how the vehicles were put together.”
Babwah was also very conscious of emissions from cars and its effects on the environment. He said the foreign-used car industry revolutionised the range of cars that were on the roads.
He said before there was competition from foreign-used car dealers, franchises sold vehicles that were more than 10 years old. He added that although they are recognised as foreign-used car dealers, many of them can also get cars directly off the production line.
“When people hear foreign-used cars sometimes they associate it with a car they don’t use in whatever country. They associate it with an old banger in London or somewhere else. But that was not the case,” he said. “When I started importing foreign-used cars there were already emission regulators in those cars.
