Bahamas News
Germany powers ahead in electric car sales growth – sales more than treble during the pandemic; Bahamas sees 133% increase
September 28, 2021 – Germany has seen the world’s fastest growth in electric car sales of all major economies[1] during the pandemic, with sales more than trebling to 194,000 cars in 2020, up from just 63,000 in 2019, shows a study of electric car sales worldwide by UHY, the international accountancy network.
The 207% growth in electric car sales in Germany last year puts it first out of 27 countries[2] in UHY’s study. This was marginally ahead of Italy, which saw a rise of 204%, from 11,000 units sold in 2019 to 32,000 in 2020. The UK was in third place, with a sales increase of 186% in 2020, and The Bahamas showed a 133% increase. The average sales growth of EVs globally in 2020 was 36%.
Worldwide growth in sales of electric cars has outpaced global car sales (including petrol and diesel), which fell by approximately 15% to 64 million in 2020, down from 75 million in 2019.[3]
Less than a fifth (19%) of countries in UHY’s study saw sales of electric cars fall during the first year of lockdown.
UHY says that Germany has begun a program of heavy investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure in order to achieve its target of having 10 million electric vehicles and one million charging stations on German roads by 2030. The country also has generous tax breaks and incentives for purchases of electric cars and charging points. New electric cars priced at less than 40,000 EUR benefit from a government rebate of 9,000 EUR, while the state-owned Development Bank offers a 900 EUR grant to install a private electric car charging point. In The Bahamas, the Bahamas Development Bank offers finance for commercial vehicles on favorable terms as attractive as no money down.
UHY Wahlen & Partner says that several new and updated mass-market electric vehicles were launched in the last year, including the Volkswagen ID.3 and e-Up! has triggered a new wave of sales in Germany. Battery electric cars made up 10% of all new cars sold in Germany in 2020, with fossil fuel-powered cars falling to a 78% share of new car sales.
Dennis Petri, Chair of UHY, comments: “The electric car revolution has picked up a lot of speed worldwide in the past year, despite the effects of the pandemic. Germany is a country with a long history of automotive innovation, and it looks like it will again be part of the vanguard in making electric cars a part of everyday life.”
“Many governments around the world have helped to drive the electric vehicle transition through providing subsidies for consumers who purchase EVs. Along with investing in the public charging infrastructure necessary to support electric cars, this is the biggest step governments can take to accelerate a large-scale switch to EVs.”
Thomas Wahlen, Managing Partner at UHY Wahlen & Partner, comments: “Manufacturers and the Government in Germany have both invested a great deal in accelerating the German transition to electric vehicles, and they will be hoping this growth rate continues for several more years.” John Bain, the Managing Partner at UHY Bain & Associates, added: “EVs have shown a significant year over year sales growth in The Bahamas. We support a further investment by the government of gradually changing its fleet to EVs that will lead to long-term savings over the life of the vehicle, as well as a reduction in the carbon footprint.”
Electric car sales growth continues to slow in China
UHY’s study shows that electric car sales growth in China continued to slow in the past year, with 968,000 battery-electric cars sold in 2020, a 16% increase on 836,000 sold in 2019. The growth rates in the previous two years had been 23% and 54%. China’s sales growth in 2020 placed it 21st on the table in UHY’s study.
However, China remains by some distance the largest national market in the world for electric cars, with more sales than the next four largest markets combined. Sales of electric cars in China are heavily incentivized by programs including Beijing’s ‘license lottery,’ which limits the city’s 22 million residents to only 40,000 new petrol cars per year to lower congestion and pollution.
US and Japan both saw electric car sales fell in 2020
UHY’s study also shows that both the US (23rd place, electric car sales down 5% in 2020) and Japan (27th place, electric car sales down 31% in 2020) both saw electric car sales fall in the past year. Less than 2% of new cars sold in the US in 2020 were battery electric vehicles.
Dennis Petri adds: “Electric cars in the US are still generally confined to the east and west coasts – that is thanks to the incentives offered by state governments in places like California, New York, and New Jersey. Car buyers in the rest of the country would benefit from more states following suit.”
Morito Saito, Director at UHY FAS Ltd, UHY’s member firm in Japan, comments: “Japanese car manufacturers still have a relatively limited offering when it comes to battery-electric cars even though they were very early adopters of hybrid technology. While some manufacturers in Europe are already implementing plans to produce only electric vehicles, that has not yet happened in Japan.”
1 Battery electric passenger cars only, excludes hybrids
2 Excluding those registering less than 1,000 electric car sales in 2020
3 Statista – number of cars sold worldwide
UHY Wahlen & Partner says that several new and updated mass-market electric vehicles were launched in the last year, including the Volkswagen ID.3 and e-Up! has triggered a new wave of sales in Germany. Battery electric cars made up 10% of all new cars sold in Germany in 2020, with fossil fuel-powered cars falling to a 78% share of new car sales.
Dennis Petri, Chair of UHY, comments: “The electric car revolution has picked up a lot of speed worldwide in the past year, despite the effects of the pandemic. Germany is a country with a long history of automotive innovation, and it looks like it will again be part of the vanguard in making electric cars a part of everyday life.”
“Many governments around the world have helped to drive the electric vehicle transition through providing subsidies for consumers who purchase EVs. Along with investing in the public charging infrastructure necessary to support electric cars, this is the biggest step governments can take to accelerate a large-scale switch to EVs.”
Thomas Wahlen, Managing Partner at UHY Wahlen & Partner, comments: “Manufacturers and the Government in Germany have both invested a great deal in accelerating the German transition to electric vehicles, and they will be hoping this growth rate continues for several more years.” John Bain, the Managing Partner at UHY Bain & Associates, added: “EVs have shown a significant year over year sales growth in The Bahamas. We support a further investment by the government of gradually changing its fleet to EVs that will lead to long-term savings over the life of the vehicle, as well as a reduction in the carbon footprint.”
Electric car sales growth continues to slow in China
UHY’s study shows that electric car sales growth in China continued to slow in the past year, with 968,000 battery-electric cars sold in 2020, a 16% increase on 836,000 sold in 2019. The growth rates in the previous two years had been 23% and 54%. China’s sales growth in 2020 placed it 21st on the table in UHY’s study.
However, China remains by some distance the largest national market in the world for electric cars, with more sales than the next four largest markets combined. Sales of electric cars in China are heavily incentivized by programs including Beijing’s ‘license lottery,’ which limits the city’s 22 million residents to only 40,000 new petrol cars per year to lower congestion and pollution.
US and Japan both saw electric car sales fell in 2020
UHY’s study also shows that both the US (23rd place, electric car sales down 5% in 2020) and Japan (27th place, electric car sales down 31% in 2020) both saw electric car sales fall in the past year. Less than 2% of new cars sold in the US in 2020 were battery electric vehicles.
Dennis Petri adds: “Electric cars in the US are still generally confined to the east and west coasts – that is thanks to the incentives offered by state governments in places like California, New York, and New Jersey. Car buyers in the rest of the country would benefit from more states following suit.”
Morito Saito, Director at UHY FAS Ltd, UHY’s member firm in Japan, comments: “Japanese car manufacturers still have a relatively limited offering when it comes to battery-electric cars even though they were very early adopters of hybrid technology. While some manufacturers in Europe are already implementing plans to produce only electric vehicles, that has not yet happened in Japan.”
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
-
News5 days agoDDME Staff Strengthen Disaster Management Capacity Through Professional Development Workshop
-
News1 week agoMulti-Agency Enforcement Action Conducted in Five Cays
-
Caribbean News6 days agoLiberty Caribbean Supports Regional Forum on AI, Cyber Resilience and Digital Inclusion
-
News5 days agoThe Turks and Caicos Islands Set Positive Start to 2026 with Increase in January Stayover Arrivals