Argentina presented yesterday, Monday, in the framework of World Environment Day, its first electric bus with lithium batteries, an initiative developed by the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of La Plata (UNLP) and a public transport company, with funding from the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation.
The Ministry said through a press release that the Minister of Science, Daniel Filmus, participated this day in putting the vehicle into circulation in the city of La Plata, 60 kilometers southeast of Buenos Aires, the country’s capital.
Filmus said during the ceremony that “it is substantive and fundamental that we work to take care of a world that, if we do not take drastic measures, we will suffer even more dramatic consequences than those we already suffer, such as drought.
This Environment Day aims to make this a permanent issue and raise awareness that it is only possible to solve current problems through science and technology”.
The official emphasized that all countries suffer the effects of climate change. Still, they are mainly produced by the developed countries of the northern hemisphere and stress the importance of public-private articulation to advance with solutions linked to the environmental issue.
“This project meant a diversity of articulations that showed us how to develop. In this case, electromobility has an enormous impact on the quality of life of our society, and we are in debt.”
“The State must generate tax incentive mechanisms so that this transformation is driven by a State that allows serious investments from businessmen and the national State and the provinces”, said Filmus.
The Argentine minister considered that “an electromobility law is urgent. We have to have our technological development perspective, encouraging investments, articulating between the different levels of the public sector, the universities, and the private sector, strengthening the capacities of our professionals”.
The official information indicated that the School of Engineering and the transport company Nueve de Julio made a prototype in December 2020, which could travel up to 60 kilometers.
The current model managed to be perfected and has a range of 200 kilometers, while the battery charging time, with a 40 kW charger, can be done between 4 and 6 hours.
“The project for the conversion of a conventional bus to electric mobility powered by lithium batteries contributes to the generation of added value in the country, promotes the creation of local labor with high expertise, the use of national materials, and the development of engineering bases for technological innovation”, said the Science portfolio, which highlighted a financing of 49 million pesos (about 202 thousand dollars).
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