Tiny Bolivian carmaker hopes to boost nation’s lithium

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia – A Bolivian startup is betting on the Andean nation’s push to tap the world’s largest lithium mines, build Electric Car that it hopes can be applied throughout Latin America with the battery.

“The form of electric mobility we are proposing is electric micromobility,” said Jose Carlos Marquez, co-owner of Quantum, a niche car manufacturer based in Cochabamba.

The company builds quirky, small cars that can carry up to 3 passengers and go no faster than 55 kilometers (34 miles) per hour. But Marquez points out that most drivers in Latin America don’t travel long distances nor have high average speeds due to chronic traffic jams.

So far, Quantum has only produced 1,500 vehicles, including cars and trucks motorcycleand hopes to export another 500 units this year.

Their lithium batteries are made abroad, despite the fact that Bolivia is located on the largest lithium mine in the world in the Uyuni salt flats. That, Marquez hopes, could soon change.

According to a recent Reuters report, leftist President Luis Arce is pushing to industrialize his massive lithium resources before the end of his term in 2025, even though even his allies are not expecting it. the country will produce large quantities of lithium by 2030, according to a recent Reuters report.

Over the past decade, Bolivia has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into lithium mining but produces very little of the battery metal, partly because of impurities.

While lithium is key to making batteries, so are other metals like nickel and cobalt that Bolivia does not produce and needs to import.

“Usually, we link mobile power with Teslabut it’s also wrong to say that all internal combustion engine cars are BMW or Mercedes Benz“, said Marquez. Sure those cars are beautiful and we all want them, but they are very far from the reality of Latin America. “