An alumnus of North Carolina Central University (NCCU) is the first person in the United States to sell electric vehicles to Cuban citizens, a process that took 12 years.
John Felder grew up in Hamlet, North Carolina, a town halfway between Charlotte and Fayetteville. Its current population is about 6,000 but it was less when Felder was growing up.
“I always loved and was fascinated by cars,” he said. “Every Sunday my parents would take us to church and Dairy Queen. My brother and I would count the number of Fords and Chevrolets and see who had the most on the road.”
He enrolled at NCCU in 1962 as a pre-medical major but left early in his fourth year without earning a degree. He then enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he worked as an air traffic controller, mostly in New Jersey though he did serve in Vietnam for one year.
He was honorably discharged after four years and next found work with Chrysler where he worked as a district parts and sales manager in the mid-Atlantic region. Before he retired in 2002 after 25 years, he took advantage of a program at Chrysler and completed a bachelor’s degree at the University of Maryland.
“I wasn’t ready for a rocking chair,” Felder said. “I still had a passion for doing something else.”
So, he founded Premier Automotive Export in Columbia, Maryland, which exports electric cars and scooters to Caribbean-based countries. Premier initially sold electric vehicle to the Bahamas, Barbados and Grand Cayman.
Felder then turned his attention to Cuba. Cubans have not been able to buy an American car since 1962, when President Kennedy instituted a trade embargo.
Through research, Felder found out there were exceptions to the embargo, including for exporting food (chickens are exported to Cuba from the port of Wilmington in North Carolina), medical supplies and journalist visits. Among those is an environmental exception.
You Don’t Give Up
John Kavulich reached out in 2017 after reading that Felder had gained his first license to export electric cars and scooters to the 124 embassies in Cuba. Premier Automotive Export sold a Nissan Leaf to the Guyana embassy, “the first electric vehicle to be sold in the Republic of Cuba,” Felder said.
Having sold to an embassy, Felder wanted to expand and sell electric vehicles to Cuban citizens.
Kavulich is the president of the U.S. – Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a private nonprofit that supplies information and analysis to U.S. businesses about commercial, economic and political relations between the two countries.
He explains that on the United States side, gaining permission to export electrical vehicles to the Cuban people requires an interagency review. The agencies include offices within the Department of State, Department of Treasury, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council at the White House.
“It is where many license applications go to die,” Kavulich said. “A year, two years, three years. Many people just give up.”
Felder, however, persisted.
“Most of my applications were rejected but I never gave up,” Felder said. “I would overcome their objections.”
In November 2022, he received a U.S. license to export electrical vehicles to the Cuban people. Of the 10.9 million people who live in Cuba, Felder estimates about 10% of them can afford electric scooters of cars. His target market is Cuban-Americans, who live in the U.S. but want to send an electric scooter or car to their relatives in Cuba. A condition of his license is that he does not sell vehicles to the Cuban government.
Felder next had to negotiate with the government of Cuba.
“The most challenging part about engaging with the Cuban government and Cuban companies is the constant change in what Cuba believes is in its best interest,” Kavulich said. “What you are told today may be contrary to what you are told tomorrow. They need to be comfortable with John Felder. And that is where John Felder excels, in making people comfortable.”
“I believe it is important enough to you, you don’t give up,” Felder said.
He credits NCCU with giving him his start. “I enjoyed my stay there,” Felder said. “I feel I will always be an Eagle. I wanted to do something that would make me happy and now I am having the time of my life. It all began at NCCU.”
