The identification of alternative transport modes is urgently required as fuel price
inflation is adversely affecting Samoa’s energy security and increasingly its
economic and social well-being. The Samoan government has recognised the
society-wide implications of fuel dependency and is moving towards improving fuel
use efficiency of the national transport fleet and the identification of viable
alternative transport fuels. This research analysed findings from global transport
stakeholder organisations and modelled the energy consumption of electric vehicles
(BEVs) under Samoan conditions. The results pointed to lower operating cost of
BEVs which led to stakeholder support for the eCar pilot project aimed at
establishing the feasibility of electro-mobility. The study adopted a postdevelopment
approach as it provided information about BEV technology and invited Samoan
transport stakeholders to contribute to mutual learning about alternative transport
modes via a series of participative workshops. Postdevelopment thinking also
pointed to assumptions made under prevailing conceptions of the modernist
development project which may see the promotion of electro-mobility in the form of
a commercial technology which is unaffordable to the majority of Samoans. The
study concludes that in order to make electro-mobility accessible to a wider section
of society, the concept of electro-mobility needs to be deconstructed into its
components and rebuild to suit Samoa’s conception of modernity. This could literally
mean BEV retrofit conversions of second hand cars to take advantage of the well
documented energy efficiency of the electric motor and discounting the status
enhancing ownership of a commercial BEV.