MEXICO CITY, September 19 (IPS) – The Mexico City government began testing an elevated route for electric buses with great fanfare on September 11, aiming to promote more sustainable transportation . The initiative is part of a nascent domestic push for electric capacity, amid pro-fossil fuel energy policies.
Mexico, a country of about 129 million people, lacks a national road transport strategy, seen as vital to reducing pollutant emissions and the path to a low-carbon economy that limits employment. apply policies.
Experts consulted by IPS highlighted the limitations of the introduced measures in relation to road traffic.
“Electric mobility is still not very developed, both in terms of facilities to buy vehicles and infrastructure. We are not moving as fast as other Latin American cities. There is a lack of cutting-edge projects,” said Bernardo Baranda, the NGO’s Latin America regional director Institute of Development Policy and Transportbased in Mexico City, told IPS.
Mexico City, home to more than 20 million people when its suburbs are included, is looking to promote electric public transportation with a new bus-specific route. It is also promoting other initiatives, such as converting buses from diesel to electric, announced in July.
Only two other major cities in the country, the western city of Guadalajara and the northern city of Monterrey, have electric public transit buses.
In the Latin American region, capitals such as Bogota, Montevideo and Santiago de Chile have large electric transit fleets, and countries such as Chile, Costa Rica, Panama and Uruguay have plans to develop the sector in the region. .
Mexico’s fleet of vehicles exceeds 53 million units and has not stopped growing since 2000, according to data from National Institute of Geography and Statistics.
Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles are on the rise: in 2016 dealers sold 254 electric vehicles, compared with 1,703 in the first half of this year alone.
Plug-in-free self-charging hybrids (they use a gasoline engine to charge the battery) have become the most popular, with purchases increasing from 7,490 in 2016 to 19,060 in the first half of 2022. Plug sales – During the same period, tanks increased from 521 to 2,263.
As of 2018, the government Federal Commission on Electricity (CFE) held at least two tenders to install so-called power lines, charging stations, in the country, where more than 2,000 points are in operation. But not all of them work, as IPS found during a tour of several areas of the Mexican capital.
However, the government’s plan to deploy this infrastructure is still not enough to spur electric vehicle purchases.
Gustavo Jiménez, director of a consulting firm Grupo Mobileacknowledged “slow progress” in the rollout of public transport, taxi fleets and delivery companies, as well as vehicle assembly projects.
“In the last two years, there has been no import-export tax on electric vehicles, helping to reduce the cost by 20%. In addition, the value-added tax has also decreased. But progress is not as fast as we would like. It is complicated to charge. your car as you drive across the country,” he told IPS.
The National electric mobility strategyWhat the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador froze when he took office in December 2018, created a comprehensive framework and incentive plans for electric vehicles.
Additionally, the current government, criticized by environmentalists as “pro-fossil fuel”, maintains record gasoline subsidies, which will exceed $15 billion by 2022, according to key estimates. awake.
Latin America’s second-largest economy is the world’s 12th largest oil producer and 17th largest gas producer. In terms of proven crude oil reserves, it ranks 20th and 41st, respectively, according to data from state oil group Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), in an industry protected by López Obrador despite its climate commitments. country.
Among the measures of the stalled Strategy are the installation of electric charging infrastructure on streets and homes, the introduction of green number plates and import and export tax exemptions for electric vehicles.
In The 2nd Annual Meeting of the US-Mexico High-Level Economic DialogueHeld in Mexico City on September 12, the United States invited its neighbor and trading partner to join the integrated electric vehicle supply chain – an essential link in the economic-environmental agenda. School run by the US government.
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The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) lists 10 electrodynamic projects in the region, one of which involves manufactures and sells electric tricycles In Mexico.
Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, along with three Colombian and five Brazilian cities, are also participating. Mission E-Bus TUMI project, which aims to support 500 cities by 2025 in their transition to deploying a total of 100,000 electric buses.
Funded by the economic cooperation of Germany and six international organizations, the project is part of Transforming Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI).
The decarbonization of transportation is fundamental to the fight against the global climate crisis. In Mexico, total CO2 emissions from that segment were 148 million tons in 2019, or 20% of the total, according to the government’s National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (Inecc).
Estimates of Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources sets life cycle emissions (from fuel extraction to combustion in the engine) at 358 grams of CO2 per km for gasoline-burning vehicles, 166 for hybrids (fuel and electric-powered vehicles) ) and 77 for vehicles using solar energy.
Research “Estimate the costs and benefits associated with implementing mitigation actions to meet the emission reduction targets under the Paris Agreement”presented on September 13 by Inecc, indicating that six sector policies will contribute to a reduction of 36.5 million tons by 2030.
It also outlines 35 emissions-reduction actions for which the nation would reap a total benefit of $295 billion.
In the case of M&E, the average cost of pollution abatement is up to $500 per ton, with an investment of nearly $5.9 billion, a total benefit of $3.1 billion and a reduction of 600,000 tons of CO2.
By replacing diesel-powered buses with electric buses, the average cost would rise to $152.90 per tonne of CO2. The benefit of fuel savings would amount to $3.2 billion.
By 2030, emissions cuts will contribute one million tons, but this potential will increase as domestic electricity production incorporates more clean energy.
CFE estimates that by 2041, about 700,000 electric vehicles will be circulating in the country and will need 40,000 charging stations, which will also mean strengthening the domestic electricity grid.
Last November, during the climate summit in Glasgow, Mexico adopted a voluntary target sell only zero-pollution cars by 2035.
At the same time, however, the Mexican government provided Used car legalization from abroad in 2021, which experts see as a negative step in the fight against pollution.
Transport expert Baranda says petrol subsidies, incentives to use fossil fuels and a lack of energy conversion are barriers to the ability to operate on electricity.
“You need public policies, at the federal and state levels, such as incentives and infrastructure. Many countries are doing this. Mexico is not on track to make good on international commitments. This is it. good opportunity to invest in electric transportation,” he said.
For his part, Jiménez questions whether current energy policy has an impact on sustainable mobility.
“There are no clear incentives for public transport, substantial subsidies are needed. The infrastructure is not much, there is no regulation for chargers, there are no measures for the circulation of electric cars. Lack of a tight support framework and Mr. complains.
© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
