LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) – On a recent cold morning, Dr. Carlos Ortuño climbed into a small electric car to check on a patient on the outskirts of La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, not knowing whether the vehicle would be able to to handle the steep and winding streets of the high altitude city.
“I thought because of the topography of the city I was going to struggle, but it’s a great climber,” Ortuño said of his experience behind the wheel of a Quantum, the first electric vehicle ever made in Bolivia. “The difference with a gasoline vehicle is huge.”
The visit to Ortuño’s home aboard a car the size of a golf cart was part of a government-sponsored program that brings doctors to patients who live in neighborhoods far from the city center. The “Doctor a casa teva” program was launched last month by the municipality of La Paz with a fleet of six electric vehicles manufactured by Quantum Motors, the only producer of electric cars in the country.
“It is a pioneering idea. It helps protect the health of people who need it, while protecting the environment and supporting local production,” said La Paz Mayor Iván Arias.
The program could also help boost Quantum Motors, a company launched four years ago by a group of entrepreneurs who believe electric vehicles will transform the auto industry in lithium-rich Bolivia.where cheap, subsidized imported petrol is still the norm.
Built like a box, the Quantum moves at no more than 35 mph (56 km/h), can be recharged from a home 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-fueled economy and make electric cars something the masses can embrace.
“Electric mobility will be imposed all over the world in the coming years, but it will be different in different countries”, says José Carlos Márquez, CEO of Quantum Motors. “Tesla will be a dominant player in the US, with its fast and autonomous cars. But in Latin America the cars will be more compact, because our streets are more like Mumbai and New Delhi than California.”
But the company’s quest to boost electric mobility in the South American country has been a challenge. In the four years since it launched its first electric vehicles, Quantum Motors has sold just under 350 cars in Bolivia and an undisclosed number of units in Peru and Paraguay. The company also plans to open a factory in Mexico later this year, although no further details on the scope of production there have been provided.
Still, Quantum Motors’ bet on battery-powered cars makes sense when it comes to Bolivia’s resources. With an estimated 21 million tons, Bolivia has the largest lithium reserve in the worlda key component of electric batteries, but has yet to mine—and industrialize—its vast metal resources.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of vehicles on the road still run on fossil fuels and the government continues to invest millions of dollars subsidizing imported fuel which is then sold at half the price on the domestic market.
“The Quantum (car) may be cheap, but I don’t think it has the capacity of a gas car,” says Marco Antonio Rodríguez, a car mechanic in La Paz, though he acknowledges that people could change their minds once The government ends petrol subsidies.
Despite the challenges ahead, the makers of the Quantum car hope that programs like “Médico en tu casa,” which is slated to double in size and expand to other neighborhoods next year, will help increase production and produce more electric vehicles across the region. .
“We are ready to grow,” says Marquez. “Our inventory is sold out until July.”
