The Sustainable Mobility Bill, which is currently being debated in the Chamber of Deputies, is the only one of the texts presented in the last six years that managed to maintain parliamentary status. It is currently being analyzed by the Budget and Finance Committee -since it demands a monetary allocation for incentives and benefits for the production and consumption of electric and hybrid vehicles-, and then it will continue its course to the Transportation and Environment Committees. It is expected that in these two multidisciplinary discussions -from the energy impact up to the regulation of charging terminals- will be added to the legislative debate.
Among its central axes, the bill establishes that as from 2041 no new internal combustion vehicles may be marketed; it creates a regime of benefits for demand and supply, in the form of bonuses, which decrease with time; and it proposes the creation of the National Agency of Sustainable Mobility. As explained to Convergencia by Claudio Damiano, referent of the Electric Mobility Vector of the School of Engineering at the University of Buenos Aires (FIUBA), the regulation under analysis is purely industrialist, focused on production. It does not address the first aspect related to batteries and lithium, with the particular situation of Argentina due to its mining potential in the north of the country; nor does it address tariff and energy issues.
"The country presents challenges for coordination. First, in terms of jurisdictions, due to environmental issues that are the responsibility of provinces and municipalities; then, we need coordination between areas of environment, transport, energy, production, health; and thirdly, between technologies, whether CNG, biofuels, among others. The opinion of the energy sector, urban planning, road infrastructure must be added," he urged. Just to take an example, charging stations for electric vehicles have started to be installed in the country -there are already about 70-, without any regulation or standardization of installation or operation guidelines: beyond the initial deployment of these terminals, the backup of electric grids that supply them must be considered. The Argentine Chamber of Electric and Alternative Vehicles and Autoparts (CAVEA), which brings together electric vehicle manufacturers, importers and professionals of the sector, argues that it is necessary to create a federal charging network.
This and other proposals have been presented in two scenarios in the last month, which put under the spotlight the existing points in the bill, and those missing. First, the Professional Council of Telecommunications, Electronics and Computer Engineering (Copitec) organized the First Professional Congress on Electric Mobility: "Mobilizing the future of Argentina", at the Fiuba; a few days later, the Scientific Office of Legislative Advice (OCAL) of the Chamber of Deputies held the Dialogue Conference "Electromobility: Present and Future Scenario in Argentina."
Several speakers gathered in those spaces called for including in the text of the bill the retrofitting of existing vehicles, which is already taking its first steps in Argentina, and may be, in turn, a starting point for workshop owners and small and medium-sized auto parts manufacturers to prepare themselves for the automotive industry of the future.
Marcos Actis, from the National University of La Plata (UNLP) and also owner of the company Veng, considered the reconversion as a fundamental step to start planning the local production of electric cars. "The reconversion allows the training of our human resources in vehicle maintenance. All the parts of a bus could be manufactured in Argentina. It is essential to prepare the industry for the reconversion, to give Argentine manufacturers time to adapt. It is useful to start thinking about local production," he said during the hearing in the Chamber of Deputies.
There are about 18,000 urban buses circulating in the AMBA, and 2,000 of them are replaced every year: the proposal is to reconvert them and return them to circulation. Furthermore, as Actis pointed out, the cost is equivalent to one third of an imported bus (US$ 160,000 versus US$ 400,000, approximately).
Since the beginning of 2021, the "Automotive Electric Retrofit" (Retrofit) project, promoted by INTI, began to be developed in Argentina. It consists of replacing the motor of the vehicle equipped with an internal combustion engine with an electric one, and all the components that make up each set; free or existing spaces are thus reused to locate the new engine, the batteries and the necessary charger. Alejandro Patanella, from the Aerospace Technology Center (CTA), called for the creation of a legal framework that allows retrofitting: "The text of the law is 100% oriented to terminals, with benefits for imports, and does not contemplate possible reconversion workshops. That is why there is a great task ahead, both with INTI and with other entities".
Market. The electric vehicle fleet in circulation in the country includes more than 20,000 motorcycles, 200 four-wheeled plug-in vehicles (sedan type), 6,500 hybrids (plug-in and non-plug-in) and 18 buses belonging to a fleet of 100% plug-in electric buses in Mendoza.
Looking at market evolution data, according to the Online Information System of the Argentine Automotive Market (Siomaa), 3,453 electric or hybrid vehicles were patented, in the first half of 2022 in Argentina, 28% more than in 2021.
Among the local manufacturers is Sero Electric, focused on micro-vehicles, of the utility type, for values between US$ 18,600 million and US$ 23,500. The plant is located in an industrial park in Morón (west of Buenos Aires), with a total capacity of 50 units per month, although only 10 are produced, since that is what the market demands, according to what Pablo Naya, founder of the company, told Convergencia.
The vehicles have an 80% domestic integration, while differential controllers, which are not produced in the country, are imported. Another local company, VHZ, supplies batteries, with cells from China.
Naya considered it necessary to move forward with the bill being discussed in Congress, in order to promote local production, and Juan Manuel Baretto, vice-president of Coradir, creator of the "Tito" electric car, expressed the same opinion. "The regulation must address the main challenge regarding electromobility, which is productivity. Making investments and obtaining soft loans are the main current challenges," he said.
Coradir's plant in San Luis has a production capacity of 200 vehicles per month. It has 70% of domestic integration, with the goal of reaching 80%. One of its differentials is the production of batteries in this plant, which is considered a "superior know-how." However, the crucial point, according to Baretto, will be the possibility of manufacturing battery cells in the country: for this, the expectation is placed on Y-Tec, YPF's lithium arm, which plans to make available the first batteries with its own cells to the local market by December.