According to the latest figures from the Seychelles Licensing Authority (SLA), more people in Seychelles are looking to buy electric vehicles rather than those with internal combustion engines. The statistics show that Seychelles had a total of 365 all-electric vehicles registered at the end of 2022. 57 out of the number were registered in 2022 and in 2021 71 were registered with the most famous purchase being the Hyundai Kona Electric.

PMC Auto, an official distributor of Hyundai vehicles in the country confirmed that the most popular car model that is mostly purchased is the Hyundai Kona and the Hyundai Ioniq range. A consultant at PMC Auto, Jayant Mayadas said that “electric cars are in fact getting more popular in Seychelles, as we have seen our sales numbers for these types of vehicles go up in recent years”.

Mayadas explained that for a small island country like Seychelles, “there are clear advantages to having an electric car”, noting that most people in Seychelles do not drive for long distances, meaning that the vehicles can go almost a whole week or even two on one charge.

Also, Electric Mation is another importer of electric cars to Seychelles which is owned by Viktor Honchar in Ukraine. He explained that there has been an increase in interest ever since they started selling electric vehicles. He said, “we think Seychelles is ready to become fully electric in terms of mobility, since given the size of the country, most people can charge their cars out of their homes, meaning there is no real need for all the infrastructure that comes with it”.

In order to encourage more people to buy electric vehicles, the Seychelles government has put in place certain incentives for the purchase of an electric car, which is because the average price to buy an electric car compared to internal combustion engine ones is high. When purchasing a normal car with a cylinder capacity between 1,000cc to 1,600cc, there is a 50% excise tax, a 15% VAT, and SCR70,000 environmental levy, however, for a purchase of an electric car there is only a 10% excise tax, 15%VAT with no environmental levy. This is according to documents from the Department of Trade.

Seychelles has initiated plans of being fully electric in terms of mobility in the country, by building more appropriate infrastructure and putting in place financial schemes to make electric vehicles more affordable to private owners. It is also looking to introduce electric vehicles to the public transport sector with the Seychelles Public Transport Corporation (SPTC), as well as considering the possibility of introducing fully electric buses to its fleet in the near future. It is also planning on developing a preliminary scheme for extended producer responsibility for the collection of EV Batteries.