EV start-up hopes tiny car will make it big
ON A recent, cold morning, Dr. Carlos Ortuño hopped into a tiny electric car to go check on a patient in the outskirts of Bolivia’s capital of La Paz, unsure whether the vehicle would be able to handle the steep, winding streets of the high-altitude city.
“I thought that because of the city’s topography it was going to struggle, but it’s a great climber,” said Ortuño about his experience driving a Quantum, the first EV to have ever been made in Bolivia. “The difference from a gasolinepowered vehicle is huge.”
Ortuño’s home visit aboard a car the size of a golf cart was part of a government-sponsored programme that brings doctors to patients living in neighbourhoods far from the city centre. The ‘Doctor in your House’ programme was launched last month by the municipality of La Paz using a fleet of six EVs manufactured by Quantum Motors, the country’s sole producer of electric cars.
“It is a pioneering idea. It helps protect the health of those in need, while protecting the environment and supporting local production,” La Paz Mayor Iván Arias said.
The programme could also help boost Quantum Motors, a company launched four years ago by a group of entrepreneurs who believe EVs will transform the auto industry in Bolivia, a lithium-rich country, where cheap, subsidised imported gasoline is still the norm.
HELP REVIVE DREAMS
Built like a box, the Quantum moves at no more than 35 mph (56 kph), can be recharged from a household outlet and can travel 50 miles (80 kilometres) before a recharge. Its creators hope the $7,600 car will help revive dreams of a lithium-powered economy and make electric cars something the masses will embrace.
But the company’s quest to boost e-mobility in the South American country has been challenging. In the four years since it released its first EVs, Quantum Motors has sold barely 350 cars in Bolivia and an undisclosed number of units in Peru and Paraguay. The company is also set to open a factory in Mexico later this year, although no further details have been provided on the scope of production there.
With an estimated 21 million tons, Bolivia has the world’s largest reserve of lithium, a key component in electric batteries, but it has yet to extract its vast resources of the metal.
Despite the challenges ahead, the makers of the Quantum car are hopeful that programmes like Médico en tu casa, which is scheduled to double in size and extend to other neighbourhoods next year, will help boost production and churn out more EVs across the region.
“We are ready to grow,” said Márquez.“Our inventory has been sold out through July.”