LA PAZ, Bolivia — On a up to date, chilly morning, Dr. Carlos Ortuño hopped right into a tiny electrical car to head test on a affected person in the outskirts of Bolivia’s capital of La Paz, undecided if the car would have the ability to maintain the steep, winding streets of the high-altitude town.
“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 gasoline-powered vehicle is huge.”
Ortuño’s home visit aboard a car the size of a golf cart was part of a government-sponsored program that brings doctors to patients living in neighborhoods far from the city center. The “Doctor in your house” program used to be introduced remaining month by way of the municipality of La Paz the usage of a fleet of six EV’s manufactured by way of Quantum Motors, the country’s sole manufacturer of electrical automobiles.
“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 program 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, subsidized imported gasoline is still the norm.
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 kilometers) 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.
“E-mobility will prevail worldwide in the next few years, but it will be different in different countries,” says José Carlos Márquez, basic supervisor of Quantum Motors. “Tesla will be a dominant participant in the U.S., with its fast, self reliant automobiles. But in Latin America, automobiles will be extra compact, as a result of our streets are extra very similar to the ones of Bombay and New Delhi than to these of California.”
But the corporate’s quest to spice up e-mobility in the South American country has been difficult. In the 4 years since it launched its first EVs, Quantum Motors has offered slightly 350 automobiles in Bolivia and an undisclosed selection of devices in Peru and Paraguay. The corporate may be set to open a manufacturing unit in Mexico later this 12 months, despite the fact that no additional main points had been equipped at the scope of manufacturing there.
Still, Quantum Motors’ guess on battery-powered automobiles is sensible when it involves Bolivia’s assets. With an estimated 21 million lots, Bolivia has the sector’s greatest reserve of lithium, a key part in electrical batteries, however it has but to extract — and industrialize — its huge assets of the steel.
In the intervening time, the huge majority of automobiles in flow are nonetheless powered by way of fossil fuels and the federal government continues to pour hundreds of thousands of greenbacks subsidizing imported gas than then sells at part the associated fee to the home marketplace.
“The Quantum (car) might be cheap, but I don’t think it has the capacity of a gasoline-powered car,” says Marco Antonio Rodriguez, a car mechanic in La Paz, despite the fact that he recognizes other people may exchange their thoughts as soon as the federal government places an finish to gas subsidies.
Despite the demanding situations forward, the makers of the Quantum car are hopeful that techniques like “Médico en tu casa,” which is scheduled to double in dimension and lengthen to different neighborhoods subsequent 12 months, will lend a hand spice up manufacturing and churn out extra EV’s around the area.
“We are ready to grow,” mentioned Márquez. “Our inventory has been sold out through July.”
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