Cuba | Latest SUVs and 4x4s steal the show from old American cars

(Havana) Brand new Mercedes, the latest SUVs and SUVs, and even a few Teslas and Jeep Wranglers, are all high-end cars that have appeared in Cuba, which is in the grip of a deep economic crisis, stealing the show from iconic American sedans and Soviet Ladas.

“Cuba needs new cars to assume its environmental responsibility. It must be done now,” Julio Alvarez, 56, owner of a tourist transport company, told AFP, referring to this wave of imports.

Always passionate about classic American cars – tens of thousands of which are still circulating in Cuba – this professional mechanic has just imported a Chinese Dongfeng SUV for his company Nostalgicar, which has been organising excursions in the country since 2011.

“What you need is to find a way to make money to make your investment profitable,” explains the entrepreneur, whose clients include the family of former US President Barack Obama (2009-2017) and stars such as Madonna and Beyoncé. He plans to import five more cars for his business.

With its modern lines, the latest arrival in black contrasts in the garage with the fifteen or so brightly colored old Chevrolets, including a 1955 Bel Air and a 1938 pickup truck, which gleam as if they had just left the factory.

Classic American sedans, most often used as collective taxis or to transport tourists, as well as Soviet-era Ladas and Moskvitches, provide a retro automotive landscape on the island that is completely unique in the world.

But for the past year and a half, Cubans have seen modern SUVs, 4x4s and vans from Japanese, South Korean, Chinese and American brands circulating, particularly in the streets of Havana, even as the country faces its worst economic crisis in 30 years, with power cuts and shortages of all kinds.

Another sign of growing inequality. On the communist island of fewer than 10 million people, the average salary is capped at 5,000 pesos ($42), the majority of the population suffers from a lack of public transportation, the most visible private vehicles are electric scooters, and it is common to see residents hitchhiking to work.

“Not compatible”

The appearance of these modern cars, which attract attention amid a small and dilapidated vehicle fleet – 600,000 vehicles nationwide, according to official figures – dates back to 2023 when the government relaxed the import of dollar vehicles for private companies, which had been authorized two years earlier.

According to the Cuba-United States Economic and Business Council, a New York-based chamber of commerce, car imports from the United States amounted to $35 million in the first half of 2024, three times more than in the whole of 2023.

This figure could increase further from the end of October, when the government plans to approve a law that will make it easier for individuals to import vehicles, which until now have been subject to exorbitant taxes and customs duties.

As Transport Minister Eduardo Rodriguez recently explained on television, a Cuban wishing to import a car costing $10,000 currently has to pay $50,000, including taxes. The new law would allow him to reduce this cost to $15,900.

But even so, it would take 31 years for a Cuban earning the average salary to buy such a vehicle.

“In our country, no doctor or graduate can dream or claim, with the salary they receive, to have a car, not even a motorcycle, which is cheaper,” William Flores, a 25-year-old anesthesiologist, told AFP as he waited for the bus near a Havana hospital after his night shift.

“I would like to” buy a car, “but it is unlikely that it will happen. You have to be optimistic, but it is a lot of money,” says Cesar Milera, 48, who works as a driver.

Several owners of high-end cars declined to answer AFP’s questions.

According to the government, the new October law should also regulate the quantity and models of cars imported to the island.

In July, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero lambasted that “some of the cars that come” into Cuba “are not compatible with our society.”