Chile government to ban most non-electric vehicles from 2035: Reports

In a bid to reduce pollution caused by fuel vehicles, Chile is gearing up to ban the sale of internal combustion vehicles. Under the National Electromobility Strategy, the Chilean government is going to promote pollution-free electronic vehicles starting in 2035 to attain the carbon neutrality objective by the end of 2050. The government of Chile is aiming to introduce light and medium vehicles, public transports, and heavy trucks which will be emission-free.

Chile to ban most non-electric vehicles from 2035

According to a report published in Xinhua, the Energy Minister of Chile Juan Carlos Jobet told local media, "Today is a historic day for Chile. We have a new electromobility strategy, which allows us to accelerate our goals and align ourselves with international standards. " He further said, "We will improve Chileans' quality of life, contribute to our industries' competitiveness, and provide a clean and optimal electrical grid for the development of electromobility," he added.

Jobet also announced the EV target along with a plan for an energy transition bill, which will increase the use of electric transport and promote green hydrogen, renewable energy, and distributed power generation initiative. According to the government's plan, by 2040 Chile will have emission-free smaller trucks and in 2045, 100 pc of cargo transport and inter-urban buses will be emission-free. The ministry informed that the norms for non-electric vehicles engine conversion will be published for public opinion in November this year. Meanwhile, the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications Gloria Hutt highlighted the importance of electromobility and its role in people's lives and called it a 'key to advancing toward more sustainable cities', where public transport plays a fundamental role.

Speaking on the vehicle ban, Hutt said, "We have been promoting this revolutionary change and that is why about 1,000 electric buses will be incorporated into the (Santiago) metropolitan public transit system, bringing the total to over 1,700 buses in circulation". Notably, more than one-third of the country's energy consumption is in the transport sector, which includes the highest number of non-electric vehicles. Meanwhile, the government has also planned to introduce electric buses in other regions of the country to control the pollution.

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