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La Paz, Bolivia — <\/span>Fed up with gasoline shortages and skyrocketing prices, Simon Huanca took matters into his own hands.<\/p>\n 53 year old indigenous artisan imported Chinese electric car<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u200b\u200bEl Alto and neighboring areas. La Paz<\/a>Home to over 1.6 million people.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> Struggling with fuel shortage and presidential orders Long running fuel subsidy ends<\/a>Effectively the cost of gasoline doubled.<\/p>\n Bolivia’s energy supply disruptions worsened in 2023 under then-President louis arce<\/a>Who maintained a state subsidy under which the country bought fuel at international prices and sold it in the domestic market at half its price.<\/p>\n But Bolivia \u2013 which imports 80% of diesel and 55% of gasoline \u2013 gradually ran out of foreign currency to buy fuel, and the subsidies represented an annual waste of more than $2 billion on the state.<\/p>\n Long queues of vehicles became a common sight at gas stations.<\/p>\n In December \u2013 one month after taking office \u2013 the President rodrigo paz<\/a> Subsidies were canceled and energy prices nearly doubled, hitting Bolivians hard. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n