La Paz, Bolivia — Fed up with gasoline shortages and skyrocketing prices, Simon Huanca took matters into his own hands.
53 year old indigenous artisan imported Chinese electric car To navigate to El Alto, the highest town in Bolivia, using the vehicle to transport both his family and alpaca wool for his weaving workshop.
He also installed a dedicated charger in his garage, mainly for convenience, but also because there are only three public charging stations in the vast metropolitan area of El Alto and neighboring areas. La PazHome to over 1.6 million people.
“For the past year, I’ve been trying to get an electric car to save costs,” Huanca said while driving his electric off-road vehicle in a working-class neighborhood.
Huanca is one of a number of Bolivians who are abandoning their fossil fuel-powered cars for electric vehicles in small but growing numbers. South American countries Struggling with fuel shortage and presidential orders Long running fuel subsidy endsEffectively the cost of gasoline doubled.
Bolivia’s energy supply disruptions worsened in 2023 under then-President louis arceWho maintained a state subsidy under which the country bought fuel at international prices and sold it in the domestic market at half its price.
But Bolivia – which imports 80% of diesel and 55% of gasoline – gradually ran out of foreign currency to buy fuel, and the subsidies represented an annual waste of more than $2 billion on the state.
Long queues of vehicles became a common sight at gas stations.
In December – one month after taking office – the President rodrigo paz Subsidies were canceled and energy prices nearly doubled, hitting Bolivians hard.
A few weeks later, transportation operators complained that the poor quality of gasoline was damaging their vehicles. The government alleged sabotage, and Paz said that gasoline distributed by the state-owned oil company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos was contaminated with gum and manganese that had been lying in storage tanks since the Arce administration.
The “junk gasoline” scandal triggered a wave of strikes and protests among transportation workers and led to the resignation of two high-ranking officials at the state-owned oil company.
was the last straw for many Bolivians Iran war. Faced with the prospect of another increase in fuel prices, some people swapped out their gasoline-powered cars for electric vehicles.
“The investment is more than $36,000, but I no longer waste valuable work time looking for fuel or managing vehicle repairs,” said Ever Vera, a 54-year-old lawyer.
The number of electric vehicles in Bolivia has increased from 500 to 3,352 over the past five years, according to the Single Registry for Tax Administration, which compiles data on tax-paying vehicles. With the fuel crisis, the most significant surge was recorded in the last two years. They still make up only a small portion of the estimated 2.6 million vehicles in the country of about 12 million people.
Most of these vehicles were imported from China, followed by the United States.
“Development is accelerating,” said Freddy Koch, electromobility expert at the independent non-profit organization Swisscontact. He said that although these vehicles are being purchased by more affluent buyers, he expects them to have broader appeal and predicts that the total number of electric vehicles could triple in two to three years.
Paz also eliminated import duties on all types of automobiles, a move that has multiplied the number of importers competing with each other to bring these vehicles into Bolivia at low prices.
The growing number of electric vehicles has created new opportunities for 38-year-old electrician Marcelo Laura. A month ago, he identified a lucrative niche in the installation of residential and commercial charging stations.
“There aren’t a lot of public charging stations out there,” he said. “A year ago, I thought it was practically impossible to think that people would actually take to electric cars.”
___
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
