Belize Warns US EV Boom Could Undermine Local E-Mobility Push

The Ministry of Sustainable Development is concerned that an increase in the manufacturing of electric vehicles in the United States could negatively impact the adoption of e-vehicles locally. Since 2022, Belize has been making strides towards making electric vehicles available in the country through its e-mobility pilot project. This project sees the development of policies and legislation as well as infrastructure upgrades, including the installation of vehicle charging stations in various locations. Today, Minister of Sustainable Development Orlando Habet said that these efforts could be undermined as gas-powered vehicles become cheaper in the US.

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development: “Personally, I don’t think that it will be large scale immediately but I think it is something that we can grow into. Personally, I’m scared of what will happen for example when the United States starts producing millions and millions of electric vehicles for their use. Because we get our used vehicles from the US. So a lot of these gas guzzlers might become cheap and where do they go? Central America, Belize, which is close. So we have to be careful about that. But so if we can start with the importation of these vehicles start to use, but we also have to start doing the training, of course the infrastructure, but the training for our mechanics and electricians who will be able to do the work for repairing the vehicles, putting the electrical work that is needed, and some of these things are already short. So in Cabinet we have discussed how we can upgrade the systems,  especially in the technical fields at the ITVETs and it is something that  hopefully I think that we might still be getting the funding through the MCC and then we can see how we can, the Ministry of Education can work with the ITVETs to do that type of upgrading of the technical courses so that they can be able to do that type of work for us.”

Belize’s e-mobility program is being supported by the private sector, entities like Belize Electricity Limited, and international partners such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)./