Industry players, stakeholders, and business leaders convened to discuss viable options for public transport, and the emerging ecosystem for lithium and electro-mobility in Latin America at The Madrid Energy Virtual Conference held on September 28th – October 2nd, 2020.
Rolando Gonzalez-Bunster, InterEnergy’s CEO and Chairman enlisted the progress made in Panama and the Dominican Republic, where the company plans to invest $100 million. His expectation is that in 10 years public transportation will be electric.
In his part, Leonardo Beltrán, former deputy secretary of Energy of Mexico and a non-resident fellow at the Institute of the Americas, said that the challenge is to create regulation, to guarantee that demand is satisfied by suppliers.
Pablo Tarantini, Integra Lithium’s CEO, pointed out that in the short-term, electric cars are leading the development of lithium and warned that there will be a shortage of this mineral in a couple of years, in view of which countries such as Argentina will play an important role.
In conclusion, James Ellis, head of Latin America Research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, highlighted that in Latin America the focus is still on public transportation due to the high costs of private cars and that the commitments made by cities will allow for rapid electrification.