From pilots to proposals for regulations on electromobility saw the light of day recently in Chile. Now, the authorities, who have been in office for almost two months, are defining the issues that should be continued and those that will be incorporated to promote the sector.

Understanding electromobility as a state policy, the Undersecretary of Energy, Julio Maturana, explained to Portal Movilidad: «We will advance on what has already been built and increase the participation of some key actors for the development of electromobility in the country, such as municipalities and regional governments, to bring electromobility to all regions of Chile».

«For us it is important to continue generating policies, standards, regulations and programmes that allow us to make the transport sector more efficient with the use of energy,» added the official.

In this context, different initiatives will continue to be promoted, such as Giro Limpio, a voluntary national programme administered by the Energy Sustainability Agency (AgenciaSE), which seeks to certify and recognise the efforts made by freight transport companies in the field of sustainability and energy efficiency.

Efforts will also be extended to the My Electric Taxi programme, which seeks to promote electromobility in the light transport segment through the replacement of internal combustion vehicles with 100% electric technology.

The Electromobility Accelerator will continue on the basis of consultancies that include knowledge training, identification of opportunities and design of specific projects to accelerate the development of electromobility projects in public-private companies.

Julio Maturana detailed: «In addition, we will continue the regulatory work that is the enabling base.

«The government is committed to the development of electromobility and to this end we will continue to work on the various initiatives already underway and we also hope to devise new ones, in order to reach more people throughout the country,» said the undersecretary.

What segments will the new programmes target?

The Ministry of Energy has worked to promote electric mobility in vehicles that have a longer distance to travel, which is why the emphasis was placed on public transport so that the benefits of electromobility reach a greater number of people, with a social emphasis and because they travel a greater number of kilometres per year, therefore, the reductions in energy consumption and the consequent benefits are greater.

«In this sense, we will continue to promote segments and projects that are aimed at covering a greater number of kilometres per year, given that today it is economically and operationally convenient. In addition, we will always be evaluating other transport sectors where we must also move towards a considerable reduction in GHG emissions,» said Julio Maturana.