Bolivia Fuel Crisis Drives EV Adoption Surge

In El Alto, Bolivia's highest city, 53-year-old Indigenous artisan Simón Huanca imported a Chinese electric off-road vehicle to ferry his family and alpaca wool for his weaving workshop, bypassing chronic gasoline shortages and soaring prices. He installed a home charger in his garage, citing the scarcity of just three public stations for the 1.6 million residents of El Alto and neighboring La Paz.

Huanca represents a small but expanding group of Bolivians ditching fossil fuel cars amid a deepening fuel crisis. "Since last year, I've been trying to get an electric car to save on costs," he said while navigating a working-class neighborhood. The shift accelerated as Bolivia, which imports 80 percent of its diesel and 55 percent of its gasoline, exhausted foreign reserves under former President Luis Arce. A state subsidy bought fuel at global rates but sold it domestically at half price, costing over $2 billion annually and sparking long lines at stations in 2023.

In December, one month after taking office, President Rodrigo Paz repealed the subsidy, nearly doubling fuel prices. Weeks later, transport operators reported vehicle damage from poor-quality gasoline distributed by...