Tourists arriving at Juan Santamaría Airport would witness Costa Rica’s commitment for migrating to public transportation that guarantees better conditions for sustainable mobility.
It is a pilot plan that will incorporate six electric taxis at the international airport, with the intention of sending a powerful signal about the Costa Rican commitment to the environment, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
And it is that Costa Rica has become a world reference in environmental issues and clean energy, highlighting its National Decarbonization Plan in different international forums. In this sense, one of its sections establishes defined goals to achieve sustainable mobility, including its public transport.
Accelerating the Transition to Electric Public Transport in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM)
In its intention to support the country’s goals, the Crusa Foundation develops the project “Accelerating the Transition to Electric Public Transport in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM)”, which received a contribution of $ 876 thousand from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The resources will be used for the acquisition of electric units and the purchase of chargers, in addition to the fast charging stations available in the Alajuela area.
“The piloting of this electric vehicle fleet will mark a before and after, it will allow us to have data on the performance of this technology at the main entrance gate of tourists to the Airport. Today we are marking the story that will be told by future generations in terms of electric mobility”, said Flora Montealegre, executive director of Fundación CRUSA.Currently 115 taxi units provide public transport service from the Juan Santamaría Airport, which will now be accompanied with these electric vehicles.
For Randall Zúñiga, Minae’s Energy Director, it is important for the country to have this type of international collaboration that fosters the advancement of new technologies.
Offering renewable energy solutions
“The importance of the project is given in that we have to start once and for all in the change of public transport in Costa Rica and private transport; To do so, we need to offer options to Costa Ricans and to promote internationally that Costa Rica is offering renewable energy solutions and that they are applied to transportation,”said Zúñiga.
The project will last four years and it is expected that by 2025 the use of electric public transport vehicles will have a significant deployment in the Greater Metropolitan Area.
The United Nations Environment Program, the CRUSA Foundation and the Ministry of Environment and Energy are some of the institutions that are part of the project. As of October 2021, the country had a total of 2,437 electric cars, according to official data from the Minae Department of Energy.
Benefits
The project “Accelerating the Transition to Electric Public Transport in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM)”, seeks to promote the change to electric vehicles during the next four years.These would be some of the benefits:
- Demonstrates the country’s environmental commitment
- Reduces carbon footprint and polluting gases
- Institutionalize electric mobility
- Eliminate barriers and prejudices about electric cars
- Encourage the scaling of electric mobility
- It encourages long-term environmental sustainability.
