The Incorporation of Electric Cars in Latin America

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) are widely regarded as a promising technology to reduce energy con- sumption, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and local air pollution from the transportation sec- tor. Within the current sustainable mobility para- digm, EVs are among the actions that increase the technological efficiency of transportation systems. The worldwide sales of electric passenger cars have increased exponentially in the last four years (Figure 1). From less than 20.000 units at the beginning of the current decade, the global stock has grown to about 700.000 by the end of 2014 (Frost & Sullivan, 2015)1 . Approximately half of this stock belongs to the USA, one quarter to Europe and one quarter to Japan, China and the rest of the world. Latin America (LA) has contrib- uted only marginally to this stock