Movie Highlights 1st Electrical Automotive Exported from U.S. to Non-public Proprietor in Cuba

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Electrical Vehicles for Cuba: Alum Earns A+ in Commerce Diplomacy

When the white Tesla Mannequin Y rolled onto the dock at Mariel Port in Cuba, it marked a historic second in worldwide commerce, within the auto trade, and, to a point, in U.S.–Cuba diplomacy. The headline-grabbing second would by no means have occurred with out the perseverance and imaginative and prescient of College of Maryland World Campus (UMGC) alumnus John Felder.

As a part of UMGC’s African American Historical past Month actions, the college is streaming Driving In direction of Change on Thursday, Feb. 29. Felder and the McNeils will communicate after the screening. Whereas the unique movie had solely been publicly proven twice earlier than — at a purple carpet documentary premiere in Columbia, Maryland, in August and at an occasion in Cuba, the UMGC screening consists of extra footage of the Tesla finishing its journey from Jacksonville, Florida, to Mariel Port simply west of Havana.

Register right here to see the 47-minute film and post-film dialogue.

Felder lengthy has believed within the immense potential for electrical vehicles and solar energy within the Caribbean, particularly in Cuba the place the prevailing energy grid is unreliable but there’s considerable sunshine. As Cuba strikes away from Venezuelan oil imports, it has turned its eye towards wind and solar energy. The Cuban authorities’s strategic plan consists of higher photo voltaic power capability.

Felder has partnered with Superior Photo voltaic Merchandise in New Jersey to put in 50 charging stations in Cuba. Along with electrical vehicles, he’s additionally approved to export electrical scooters to Cuba, calling his Bala model scooters “the most secure on the earth.” However getting permission to export straight from america to the island — as Felder has with the Bahamas, Barbados and the Cayman Islands — was no simple promote. The self-described “gearhead” spent greater than 15 years negotiating with authorities officers in each america and Cuba, along with juggling the logistics for transport automobiles and getting paid.

“It’s troublesome to function in Cuba, even worse for an American firm due to the embargo,” Felder acknowledged. “For my firm to turn out to be the primary to deliver electrical automobiles to the island, I needed to get each the Cuban authorities and the U.S. authorities to say ‘sure.’ I needed to get two adversaries to agree.”

There have been quite a few caveats to the sale, together with a promise that the vehicles would solely be bought to personal residents and by no means resold to the Cuban authorities. The patrons of the primary Tesla have been William and Jessica Rodriguez, who personal a Cuban restaurant in Burtonsville, Maryland, but additionally have household property on the island.

Whereas the Tesla is the primary electrical automobile to succeed in a non-public citizen in Cuba, Felder legally navigated the commerce embargo to promote a Nissan Leaf to the Embassy of Guyana in Havana in 2017. That deal got here underneath a restricted four-year license from the U.S. Division of Commerce’s Bureau of Trade and Safety and concerned Premier Automotive Export’s subsidiary within the Cayman Islands. The license solely permitted gross sales to embassies.

Felder stated the embassy continues to be utilizing the automobile and “they haven’t needed to stand in a gasoline line in Cuba for seven years.” He’s now negotiating a Tesla sale with the Egyptian Embassy in Cuba. A technician with Premier Automotive Export’s operations is out there to journey to Cuba, if wanted, to deal with upkeep and repairs on the electrical vehicles.

Felder stated the Cuba journey is the top of a lifelong love affair with vehicles. “I’m a automobile man. I’ve all the time had a ardour for vehicles, from the time I used to be a bit boy,” he stated. “After I was youthful, I wished to drive a inventory automobile.”

That fascination with vehicles carried him right into a 25-year profession with Chrysler Corp. Felder was a mid-Atlantic area gross sales and advertising govt earlier than retiring from the automaker in 2002 and launching his luxurious automobile dealership. Although based mostly in Columbia, Maryland, he instantly noticed the potential for gross sales past america.

“I did an evaluation of markets and began delivering to the Bahamas, Barbados and Grand Cayman,” he defined. “Then I began Cuba and the embargo and all of the outdated vehicles they nonetheless had on the island, vehicles with no catalytic converters, vehicles that pollute.

“Cuba has 11.5 million folks and about 5 p.c of that inhabitants can afford to write down a verify for an electrical automobile. They’re a part of the center class. They’re the goal I need to hook up with,” he added.

In 2012, after the Obama administration signaled a softening within the Chilly Warfare–period relationship with Cuba, Felder obtained an invite to fulfill in D.C. with officers of the US. Division of Vitality and Cuba’s Ministry of Vitality.

“That completely threw me. I had no thought what the invitation was about. However as quickly as I received there, it turned obvious they wished to speak about electrical vehicles,” Felder stated, explaining that his automobile gross sales elsewhere within the Caribbean had put him on the radar of each international locations. “It was an enlightening dialog, and I used to be invited to Cuba.”

As soon as in Havana, Felder was mesmerized by the outdated American vehicles that Cuban drivers saved operating by way of sheer resourcefulness. “I knew about them, in fact, however for a automobile man like me to truly see a Studebaker or an outdated Edsel nonetheless on the street was unbelievable,” he stated.

Felder stated he’s thrilled the movie of the electrical vehicles initiative will likely be proven by UMGC, the place he earned a bachelor’s diploma in enterprise on the urging of his oldest daughter, who was a university scholar on the time. As a army veteran, he had lengthy recognized about UMGC.

Felder had began his school profession in pre-med at North Carolina Central College however determined that drugs wasn’t a great match and left college. His daughter challenged him to turn out to be a Y2K graduate in tandem along with her.

“I used to be nonetheless working for Chrysler and there was the demand of going again to school after I was 50-something. I used to be the oldest individual in my class,” Felder stated. He attended in-person courses within the evenings on Mondays and Wednesdays and all day on Saturdays, and he accomplished the diploma necessities in two years.

He stated the make-up of the category was numerous, and the dynamic in-classroom discussions “have been an enormous a part of my life expertise.”

And Felder’s reference to the McNeils? Pure serendipity.

The McNeils discovered of Felder’s Cuba plans after they have been figuring out particulars for filming the nationwide conference of the African American Postal League — A-Plus, for brief — a nationwide group targeted on Black postal staff. Together with the filming, the McNeils have been going to function distributors on the conference to promote their novel Duology of Postal and to advertise their function movie, Urge, which turned a considerate lens on a pair coping with the fallout from pornography dependancy.

Throughout talks with Camille Wilder, the A-Plus vice chairman of retirees talked about Felder — a good friend of hers — and his Cuba mission. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than the McNeils have been requested to movie Felder’s efforts.

“This golden alternative was staring us within the face and, after Pam and I had a dialog, we accepted. We needed to rapidly put the promotion of Urge on the backburner as a result of we have been headed to Cuba!” Peter McNeil stated.

Though they ultimately jumped on board, the filmmakers’ preliminary response had been hesitation.

“Who goes to Cuba? Not too many individuals we all know. That’s why we weren’t lured onto this mission instantly,” Pamela McNeil stated. “However then we met John, who’s loveable and beneficiant and made us really feel like household. That sealed the deal.”

The McNeils meant to make quick movies that may very well be used as promotional spots or trailers targeted on Felder’s enterprise. It didn’t take lengthy, nonetheless, to see the potential for a documentary movie. Along with interviewing U.S. authorities officers and Felder’s buddies and colleagues in america, the McNeils traveled twice to Cuba, the place they, too, have been amazed by the outdated autos on the street.

“These basic retro vehicles are lovely. However they don’t have any air con. They’re rickety and raggedy inside,” Pamela McNeil stated. “There have been occasions we have been in a automobile that needed to pull off and sit along side the street as a result of they overheated.”

Additionally they received to expertise one in all Cuba’s iconic gasoline station strains after they waited an hour and quarter-hour to succeed in a pump so their driver might replenish the automobile’s tank. However in addition they praised the creativity and power and friendliness of the Cubans they met.

Pamela McNeil stated the second the island was ready for, the arrival of the Tesla, felt surreal.

“You could have a technology of younger folks that every one they’ve recognized are retro vehicles,” she stated. “That Tesla — it’s one thing Cubans by no means would have imagined they’d see of their lifetimes.”

By Mary Dempsey. Courtesy of College of Maryland World Campus.