More people in Seychelles are looking to purchase electric vehicles rather than those with internal combustion engines, figures from the Seychelles Licensing Authority (SLA) show.

According to the figures from the SLA, at the end of 2022, Seychelles had a total of 365 all-electric vehicles registered. Out of that figure, 57 were registered in 2022 and 71 in 2021 with the most popular purchase being the Hyundai Kona Electric.

With Seychelles looking to move towards an all-electric powered future, people are being encouraged to get greener alternatives when it comes to cars.

PMC Auto is an official distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Seychelles and it confirmed that the most popular electric car model that they sell is the Hyundai Kona, along with the Hyundai Ioniq range.

"Electric cars are in fact getting more popular in Seychelles, where we have seen our sales numbers for these types of vehicles go up in recent years," said Jayant Mayadas, a consultant at PMC Auto.

A fully charged Hyundai Ioniq can be driven for about 220km (PMC). Photo License: CC-BY

"There are clear advantages to having an electric car, especially for a small island like Seychelles, where the range of a fully charged car is concerned," said Mayadas.

He explained that most people in Seychelles do not drive for long distances and therefore can go almost a whole week or even two on one charge.

According to Hyundai's official website, the latest Hyundai Kona has a range of 484 km on a full charge, while to go from the northern coast of Mahe and drive around the island's coast and back is less than 90km.

Another importer of electric cars to Seychelles is Electric Motion, owned by Ukrainian Viktor Honchar, who explained that since they started selling electric cars, there has been an increase in interest.

"We think that 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," said Honchar.

The average price to buy an electric car compared to internal combustion engine ones is high but there are certain incentives put in place by the Seychelles government to encourage more people to buy electric vehicles.

According to documents from the Department of Trade, when purchasing a car with a cylinder capacity between 1,000cc to 1,600cc which uses fuel, there is a 50 percent excise tax, plus a 15 percent Value Added Tax and SCR70,000 environmental levy.

Meanwhile, an electric car with the same cylinder capacity will only have a 10 percent excise tax, along with 15 percent VAT, but no environmental levy.

Seychelles has started plans to be fully electric in terms of mobility in the country, which will include building the proper infrastructure and putting in place financial schemes to make electric vehicles more affordable to private owners.

It will also include the development of a preliminary scheme for extended producer responsibility for the collection of EV Batteries.

Seychelles will also look to introduce electric vehicles to the public transport sector with the Seychelles Public Transport Corporation (SPTC) considering the possibility of introducing fully electric buses to their fleet in the near future.