National Electromobility Strategy Launch: Government announces that only electric vehicles will be sold in Chile by 2035

An exhibition of different types of electric vehicle provided the backdrop for the announcement of details of Chile’s National Electromobility Strategy. The event was headed by Energy and Mining Biminister Juan Carlos Jobet, Transport and Telecommunications Minister Gloria Hutt, Energy Undersecretary Francisco López and Transport Undersecretary José Luis Domínguez. 

“Today is a historic day for Chile. We have a new electromobility strategy, which will allow us to speed up our goals and align ourselves with international standards, thus acquiring best practices and experiences for the mass incorporation of electromobility in the country. By 2035, 100% of light and medium vehicles sold will be zero emissions, 100% of public transport (buses, taxis and shared taxis) sold will be zero emissions and 100% of large mobile machinery sold will be zero emissions. All of this will directly benefit Chileans’ quality of life,” Minister Jobet stated. 

The Energy Minister explained that in Chile more than a third of energy consumption corresponds to the transport sector and that more than 99% of this consumption comes from oil-derived energy sources. He highlighted, “our mission is to keep moving forward, because this is the decade in which we will consolidate Chile as a clean energy country. We will thus be improving Chilean’s quality of life and contributing to the competitiveness of our industries, while providing a clean and optimal power grid for the development of electromobility.”  

Minister Hutt indicated that “the development of electromobility is key to moving toward more sustainable cities, where public transport plays a critical role. At the Transport and Telecommunications Ministry, we have been promoting this revolutionary change and that is why, within the framework of the metropolitan public transport tender, nearly a thousand electric buses will be incorporated into the system, thus totaling more than 1,700 buses in operation. We are also conducting public tenders to implement electric buses in Arica, Antofagasta, Copiapó, Valparaíso, Concepción, Temuco and Puerto Montt.” 

2035: ONLY ELECTRIC CARS WILL BE SOLD 

The goal of the Electromobility Strategy is to speed up the development of electromobility in Chile. In line with international goals, best practices and experiences are being acquired at the domestic level for the mass incorporation of electromobility in the country. That is why the strategy promoted by the Energy Ministry establishes that only electric cars will be sold by 2035. 

In this context, Energy Undersecretary Francisco López highlighted, “we have established ambitious goals, but we are sure they can be met because the public and private sectors are working together. At the Government, our focus is on regulation and incentives, which will undoubtedly allow all Chileans to soon have access to the benefits of electromobility.” 

Thus, by 2035: 

• 100% of light and medium vehicles sold will be zero-emission.

• 100% of public transport (buses, taxis and shared taxis) sold will be zero-emission.

• 100% of large mobile machinery sold will be zero-emission, including extraction trucks and heavy mining equipment.

By 2040:

• 100% of small mobile machinery sold will be zero-emission, including construction, agriculture and forestry machinery.

And by 2045:

• 100% of freight transport and intercity buses sold will be zero-emission.

We will carry this out this with the support of different initiatives: 

• Efficiency standards for new vehicles, implemented in the Energy Efficiency Law.

• Incentive programs for long-haul fleets.

• Conversion of combustion engine vehicles into electric vehicles. The regulation will be published in November for public consultation.

• New Energy Transition bill to soon be submitted to congress. 

The bill will include four topics: green hydrogen; boost for renewable energy and distributed generation; and electromobility. Some issues to be included regarding electromobility are:

- Temporary reduction in circulation permits for electric vehicles (EV) to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles.

- Amendment to the distributed generation law to enable the vehicle-to-grid concept, which allows electric vehicles to feed energy back into the grid with a value being allocated.

The Electromobility Strategy is available at the electromobility platform, open information center www.energia.gob.cl/electromovilidad