Yesterday, the Ministry of Public Utilities took another step toward modernizing the transportation sector by participating in regional discussions on the Promotion of Electric Mobility in SICA Countries initiative, a project funded by Taiwan.
As part of the project, feasibility studies will be carried out in Belize to evaluate the implementation of electric buses and the supporting charging network. We spoke with CEO in the Ministry, Dr. Leroy Almendarez, and this is what he had to say about e-mobility:
Dr. Leroy Almendarez, CEO - MPUELE
"Data will tell you whether or not you should go, because there is a cost to that kind of transition from what you currently utilize, diesel-generated buses or gas buses, looking at e-mobility. And so I believe that in terms of the information that we got, it does tell us that, yes, it's feasible, it's viable. But the question is, how do you convince not only the current road users, what would be the government's continued policy? Or is there a need to change the policy in terms of introduction of new legislation? You know, there's a national bus company. But then when you look at the fact that so many of the buses that are being utilized are other vehicles, are gas buses. And so to make that transition, I'm sure the big question from those users would be, well, how do I make that transition because of the cost? And my encouragement would always be, well, even that's why the banks are available, and I'm not saying that you need to go to do that. But the initial investment or the initial cost is usually the greatest cost that you need to make. But over the long run, in terms of the cost of using an e-vehicle as opposed to a gas vehicle, the cost savings will be great, because in terms of e-mobility, in fact, once that shows you that if you were to go from here to San Ignacio, it might take you $200 to fill a bus. Using an e-vehicle, it costs you about 50% of that or less."
