Update on Teslas being purchased by Cubans: Meet John Felder, car dealer extraordinaire

From our Bureau of Socialist Extortion Schemes in Latrine American Totalitarian Hellholes

As it turns out, the U.S. businessman who is selling Teslas to privileged Cubans is John Felder, a former Chrysler employee and Air Force Vietnam veteran who resides in Maryland. His export firm was the first to receive permission from the U.S. government to sell used electric cars in Cuba to embassies, private businesses, and individuals.

One of his chief competitors is the shameless Cuban Castronoid Hugo Cancio, who was also awarded a U.S. license to sell used cars in Cuba.

It took Felder ten years of negotiations with Castro, Inc. to set up his exports. Apparently, despite all of the difficulties he has encountered, he is still somewhat naive about the rapacity of his business partners in Havana, as well as about the harsh truths of the Cuban economy.

“I expect to get orders from 11.5 million people, that’s my goal,” he said in an interview with a Maryland tv station. Yeah, sure. Lord have mercy on you, Mr. Felder.

Felder’s odyssey has become the subject of a documentary, “Driving Towards Change,” which was screened in Havana yesterday. His story is also featured today in the English language version Castro, Inc.’s propaganda rag Prensa Latina.

Read the article below to see how incredibly expensive and difficult it is to buy any car from Felder or Cancio. And you will immediately notice how much money Castro, Inc. extorts from dealers and car buyers.

Abridged from Yahoo News

On top of its sticker price, the government imposes a 21% customs tax on electric cars bought by small and medium private enterprises and 42% if the buyer is an individual, according to John Kavulich, the president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.

Though the country lacks the infrastructure to support an electric car market, Felder said he includes home chargers in the price of the cars he sells and can provide service to the vehicles on the island.

The couple that bought the Tesla runs a popular Cuban restaurant in Maryland but has also kept its permanent residence in Cuba, Felder said. That is possible if the person returns to Cuba at least once in the first two years of emigrating or has applied to restore the residence rights through a legal process known as repatriation. Because the couple live in the United States, they can pay the U.S. car seller directly, which most Cubans living on the island cannot currently do because the embargo does not allow direct banking relations with Cuba.

The price and banking restrictions mean that his potential clients are people with dual residency, the few owners of highly successful private businesses in Cuba and Cubans who live abroad and are buying cars for their relatives in Cuba, Felder said.

The Cuban government also requires local buyers and foreign car sellers to work through a state company as an intermediary, adding bureaucracy and causing delays, Felder said. So far, he has been able to sell three electric cars to private citizens in Cuba, but only the Tesla has been delivered.

“I’m having a hard time getting the documentation completed because it’s a little challenging,” he said. “The customers have to pay for the vehicle duty before I can import or export it. 

Still, Felder is betting on the Cuban market and says he welcomes the competition from other companies, including one owned by Cuban-American businessman Hugo Cancio, who has also been authorized to sell cars.