By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian electric vehicle dealer is “dreaming big” with 2025’s sales on pace to beat the full-year target by 10 percent and its fourth brand set to be launched at this weekend’s annual industry New Car Show.

Pia Farmer, partner at Easy Car Sales, told Tribune Business that the dealer is set to unveil Hongqi as its premium, high-end brand while asserting that it is the vehicle model in which Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and all Beijing’s dignitaries are transported in.

Confirming that the Hongqi vehicles have arrived in The Bahamas, and are presently being cleared through Customs in time to meet Friday’s New Car Show start at the Mall at Marathon, she added that the electric vehicle dealer is seeking to “immediately” hire an additional six staff so that it can meet the needs of the 1,200 drivers who have acquired its autos to-date.Noting that Easy Car Sales has grown from just eight staff to its present 40-strong workforce in the post-COVID years, Ms Farmer told this newspaper that the company expects to start construction on its new “multi-million” dollar headquarters building at Abundant Life Road in 2026.

Confirming that Easy Car Sales is currently going through the permitting and approvals process before it can begin building, she said: “It’s constant. It’s just constant. We are growing and we need more people. 

“We’re working on our new location on the highway at Abundant Life Road. We’re working on a budget right now, but I suppose it will be multi-millions. We expect to start construction on our headquarters there next year, and we need more people to get the after-sales as well as preparing for continued growth in sales.

“Immediately we probably need at least half-a-dozen new employees. It’s really to do the after-sales,” Ms Farmer continued. “We have over 1,200 cars on the raid. We are growing every year. We have exceeded our sales targets every year, and we are exceeding our targets for this year already.

“We need to be prepared to support the customer. It’s only once a year that they have to do check-ups. We are preparing. We are doing our projections for how many vehicles will need to be serviced and maintained. That’s what we’re doing because we’re being proactive.”

Easy Car Sales is currently seeking recruits for posts ranging from auto detailer to sales persons, technicians, service and customer service coordinators, mechanics and operations coordinators.

“We started with eight people coming out of the pandemic, when we became a 100 percent electric vehicle dealer, and today we are pretty much 40 people five years later,” Ms Farmer said. “When we started we had one location, Gladstone Road, and now we have three.”

Besides the Abundant Life Road location, just off the East-West Highway, East Car Sales also has a showroom at the Mall at Marathon - arguably the retail location with the highest footfall on New Providence. It will also host this weekend’s New Car Show by the Bahamas Motor Dealers Association (BMDA).

“We are going to be introducing our fourth brand at the show, so we are adding brands as well,” Ms Farmer told Tribune Business of Hongqi. “That’s what we call ‘Easy Royalty’. It’s the high-end brand, top of all the cars. It’s what President Xi and all dignitaries are driven in in China.

“It’s going to be very exclusive and very high-end, so it’s not a question of quantity. Rather, it’s for the more select customer. The vehicles just arrived yesterday and we’re clearing them in time for the show. They should be there on Friday for the Car Show.”

Ms Farmer added that Easy Car Sales is also participating at the Bahamas Culinary & Arts Festival, being held at Baha Mar before month’s end, and said: “We will have two of our vehicles wrapped, one by John Cox and the other design will be by Jordanna Kelly.

She confirmed that the “artist series” will be a “limited series” where Bahamian artists are being invited “to make their own interpretations of the vehicles”. Besides Hongqi, Easy Car Sales is also the sole authorised Bahamas distributor for BYD, Jac Motors and Geely Riddara.

“We will, probably by the end of the year, be more than 10 percent over our full-year target; what we had planned for sales this year,” Ms Farmer told Tribune Business. “It’s going very well. We are very busy. It’s growing and we feel very positive about the future.

“It depends on the economic situation of the country. Barring any catastrophes or pandemics or whatever, we are growing well, we are growing steadily and on a good foundation, and we’re all dreaming big dreams.

“We’ve outgrown Gladstone Road. There’s a lot to do, steadily and slowly. It’s [the new hires] just to build the growth and expansion of the company. We’re not going crazy. We are being responsible,” she added.

“As we know from other dealers, this year and last year were good years for sales, but it’s not always like that. When we look at the numbers for the last ten years, sometimes they’ve been quite low with the pandemic and introduction of VAT. We feel very good. It’s been a good year so far, and we look forward to continuing to change the way people drive in The Bahamas.”