Institutional framework and the advance of electromobility: the case of South America

This article describes the types of policies deployed for the advancement of electromobility in South America: Argentina-Buenos Aires, Brazil-São Paulo, Chile-Santiago, and Colombia-Bogotá. The selected cases validate the importance of institutional thickness to transition initiatives of sustainability. Thus, we have active and reactive territories about electromobility transition. It enabled us to highlight the pathways that have been taken so far in South America, namely: 1) the electric bus segment stands out in the regions, concentrating on private initiatives and public policy support, giving rise to new businesses and projects of technological experimentation; 2) a political glimpse of insertion in the lithium production chain for batteries; 3) technological dependence of the light vehicles and two wheelers segment. Thus, this research dialogues with the geography of transitions literature by emphasising the importance of the territorial context for the advancement or lethargy of socio-technical change.

Keywords: transitions in the Global South; sustainability transitions; e-mobility; low-emission mobility; geography of sustainability transitions.

Flávia Luciane Consoni de Mello