China EV boom in South America

WHEN Peruvian green energy entrepreneur Luis Zwiebach wanted to buy an electric vehicle (EV) in 2019, he flew about 6,500km to California to test drive Tesla’s Model 3 sedan. But Tesla lacked an official importer and he couldn’t find a way around Peru’s complex vehicle import procedures.

He was not deterred. “There was a gentleman who had already imported one and wanted to sell it,” Zwiebach says. “So I went to see it, and I bought it.”