Introduction of electric vehicles in Peru: Potential contribution to carbon emission reduction.

Electric Vehicles are about to enter the Peruvian market. There is expectation with regard to their potential contribution to carbon emission reduction. Small vehicles run usually on gasoline. There is also a number of vehicles that are now running on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or Natural gas which originally were designed to run on gasoline. The substitution of gasoline with LPG or Natural Gas already has contributed to carbon emission reduction and also, equally important, provided the end user with cost savings. The objective of the paper is to assess how electric vehicles might contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions. Electric vehicles are assumed to be free of carbon emissions in their operation; however, the electricity used for operation of electric vehicles may not be free of carbon emissions in its generation. Thermal power plants have increased their share in the electricity production mix of Peru and last year accounted for nearly half of total production. A total of 26'666,537 tCO2/yr are emitted due to the use of fossil fuels in the transportation sector. Nearly 55% of those comes from the use of diesel oil. Therefore, careful evaluation is required in order to establish a realistic expectation about carbon emission reduction due to the potential introduction of electric vehicles in the local market. For illustration purposes, substitution rates of 2%, 5%, 3%, and 5% are considered for natural gas, gasoline motor, liquefied petroleum gas, and gasoline/ethanol, respectively. By doing so, a total of 348,437 tCO2/yr could be avoided. This means that a 15% penetration of electric vehicles would lead to a reduction of 59.70% when compared to the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), LPG, Gasoline Motor, and Gasoline/Ethanol, but only a reduction of 0.78% if compared to total current carbon emissions.