Electrification of transport: A challenge for urbanized Latin America
Electric transport, still limited in Latin America despite its urban benefits, could expand during the postpandemic economic recovery, said Adalberto Maluf, president of the Brazilian Association of Electric Vehicles (ABVE).
If there are major investments in the necessary reactivation of the economy, they should form part of “a transition towards a green economy, in an agenda for the future,” as some European countries have already decided, said Maluf, who is also director in Brazil of the Chinese company BYD, the world’s largest manufacturer of 100 percent electric vehicles, IPS reported.
“The transition to electric mobility powered by clean energy is beginning to generate growing interest among governments, and also among citizens,” noted the report “Electric Mobility 2019: Status and Opportunities for Regional Collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean,” released in Spanish on Jul. 2 by UN Environment.
This is reflected in “the emergence of different civil society groups dedicated to this sector and made up of enthusiasts, early adopters and entrepreneurs,” according to the report, which points to a bigger push in public transport in the 20 countries studied.
In a region that has rapidly urbanized, with 80 percent of the population living in urban areas, and where the number of large cities has climbed, electric vehicles are improving the environment, transportation, quality of life and collective health, in addition to opening up new economic possibilities and generating jobs and technological innovations.
Transportation is responsible for 22 percent of the region’s emissions of short-lived climate pollutants and 15 percent of greenhouse gases, according to the report by the regional office of the agency also known as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The electrification of 100 percent of urban transport would prevent 180,117 deaths from 2019 to 2050 in Mexico City, 207,672 in Buenos Aires and 13,003 in Santiago, by eliminating the gases and particulate matter emitted by conventional vehicles, the report estimated.
The efficiency of electricity, far superior to that of fossil fuels in vehicles, offers a great economic advantage in the medium term.
The electric vehicle is more expensive because of the battery, which can cost nearly half of the total for a bus that can run 200 kilometers without recharging, said Iêda de Oliveira, executive director of Eletra, an electric bus company founded in 1988 in São Bernardo do Campo, near the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo.
The price difference, she said, is recovered in a few years from savings in energy and maintenance, since electric motors have fewer parts and wear out less.
The economic advantages are accentuated in countries that, like Chile, depend on imported oil and therefore suffer the effects of international price swings and exchange rate fluctuations.
Chile stands out in the electrification of its urban transport. Santiago’s Metropolitan Mobility Network had 386 electric buses by the end of 2019. There will be almost 800 by the end of 2020. BYD (Build Your Dreams) is the largest supplier of electric buses in Chile, Maluf said.
Furthermore, Chile has set a goal to electrify its entire public transport fleet and 40 percent of private transport by 2050, as part of the National Electromobility Strategy approved in 2016.
Colombia also stands out, with 483 electric buses in operation or on order in Bogotá and another 90 in the cities of Cali and Medellín as of late 2019. The national goal for 2030 is to have 600,000 electric vehicles of all types, according to the UNEP report.
Costa Rica and Panama are other countries in the region that have adopted national electric mobility plans. Argentina, Mexico and Paraguay are in the process of hammering out their own strategies.
Brazil, which could lead this process even as a manufacturer of electric vehicles, “lags behind” in electrification, said Maluf, adding that “BYD sold 1045 buses in Latin America in 2019, only four percent of which went to Brazil.”
“Chile is a case in point; it was already a major importer of conventional buses from the Brazilian industry,” said Oliveira, who leads ABVE’S Heavy Vehicle Group, in addition to heading Eletra. “Because of its shortsightedness, Brazil lost the Latin American market to China.
“We need a public policy on electric transport, which is not only an environmental but also an economic question, because Brazil could be a leader, given our large fleet, our national spare parts industry, and our national technology,” she said.
Clear goals, available financing, more favorable taxation that takes into account environmental, social and health benefits, incentives for local battery production and the expansion of recharging infrastructure should form part of this policy, Oliveira said.