Caribbean Beat — January/February 2017 (#143)
A calendar of events; music, film, and book reviews; travel features; people profiles, and much more.
A calendar of events; music, film, and book reviews; travel features; people profiles, and much more.
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THE DEAL<br />
Electric<br />
avenues<br />
Around the world, entrepreneurs<br />
are investing in electric cars as the<br />
transport of the future. But are<br />
they taking off in the <strong>Caribbean</strong>?<br />
Shelly-Ann Inniss investigates<br />
Photograph by Nerhuz / Shutterstock.com<br />
Some of my fondest childhood<br />
memories involve cars.<br />
My father and I used to play<br />
a game called “guess that<br />
car” <strong>—</strong> down to the year of<br />
the vehicle. I wanted my own<br />
car very badly, so my parents bought me<br />
several toy versions. What I really desired<br />
was a remote-controlled car, but that was<br />
an extravagance my parents didn’t indulge.<br />
Luckily, in my adult years, technology<br />
has exponentially evolved. Now those<br />
remote-controlled cars have morphed<br />
into full-fledged stylish, economical, fast,<br />
smart, road-worthy electric vehicles <strong>—</strong><br />
minus the remote and with a much bigger<br />
battery <strong>—</strong> and they seem ideal for the<br />
<strong>Caribbean</strong>, due to the size of our islands<br />
and our abundant renewable energy<br />
resources, like sunlight.<br />
Pure or one-hundred-per-cent electric<br />
vehicles (EVs) are powered by energy<br />
stored in their rechargeable batteries, or<br />
other energy storage devices. Fundamentally,<br />
engines, gas tanks, oil filters, and tail<br />
pipes are non-existent in these vehicles,<br />
108 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM