Colombia. Through an alliance between the manufacturer Renault Sofasa and the Colombian energy companies Codensa and Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), the first electric car arrived in South America that will be part of a group of at least 250 vehicles that will circulate next year in the cities of Bogotá and Medellín, as part of business fleets.
The car, which will cost approximately $50 million (about US$25,000), runs on hydropower, is totally environmentally friendly, as announced by Federico Restrepo Posada, manager of EPM, during the International Fair of the Electricity Sector (Fise 2011), which was held in Medellín in recent days.
Likewise, Restrepo said that this project has had an investment by EPM of 600 million pesos (about US $ 300,000).
However, some issues are still to be resolved if the massive use of this type of technology is to be promoted.
"One of the main challenges is that of the battery in which the energy necessary for the operation of the vehicle is stored, its cost, its weight and its durability are issues that still do not reach the efficiency of traditional cars," explained José Antonio Vargas Lleras, president of the World Energy Council, Colombia chapter and vice president for the Latin America and the Caribbean region.
A major problem that will require investment and time is that of infrastructure, investment in chargers at service stations and monitoring systems of charging networks, several experts commented during Fise 2011.
Even so, the technology has advanced a lot and currently the charging time of the vehicle has managed to be reduced to 15 to 20 minutes for a journey of between 90 and 200 kilometers.
According to Vargas, passenger transport consumes 60% of global oil production and it is projected that in 2035 this consumption will be 90%. "That is why it is essential to enter into operation the electric vehicle, which has already been adopted in other latitudes with good results. The International Energy Agency predicts that in 2015 there will be one million electric vehicles on the road and that by 2020 there will be seven million."
