LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia’s fuel crisis has shoved ordinary people into a market workaround, after President Rodrigo Paz repealed a long-standing fuel subsidy in December and energy prices nearly doubled. For many, the choice was not some shiny consumer trend but a response to state policy, shortages, and the daily grind of finding enough fuel to keep working.
Who Pays When the State Pulls the Plug
Simón Huanca, a 53-year-old Indigenous artisan in El Alto, said he imported a Chinese electric car to move his family and the alpaca wool for his weaving workshop. He also installed a dedicated charger in his own garage, saying it was mainly for convenience, but also because there are only three public charging stations serving the vast metropolitan area of El Alto and neighboring La Paz, home to more than 1.6 million people. Huanca said, “Since last year, I’ve been trying to get an electric car to save on costs.”
His move reflects how the burden of fuel policy lands on people at the bottom, not on the officials who announce it. Bolivia’s energy supply disruptions worsened in 2023 under then President Luis Arce, who maintained a state subsidy under which the country purchased fuel at international prices and sold it at half its value on the domestic market. Bolivia imports 80% of the diesel and 55% of the gasoline it consumes, and the subsidy represented an annual drain of more than $2 billion on the state. Long lines of vehicles waiting at gas stations became a common sight.
What They Call “Order”
In December, one month after taking office, President Rodrigo Paz repealed the subsidy, and energy prices nearly doubled, hitting Bolivians hard. A few weeks later, transport operators complained that the poor quality of the gasoline was damaging their vehicles. The government alleged sabotage, and Paz said that the gasoline distributed by state-owned oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos was contaminated with gum and manganese that had remained in the storage tanks since the Arce administration.
The “junk gasoline” scandal triggered a wave of strikes and protests among transportation workers and the resignations of two high-ranking officials at the state-owned oil company. The sequence is familiar: the apparatus breaks down, workers absorb the damage, and then the same institutions scramble to explain the mess after the fact.
Direct Action at the Level of Survival
For some Bolivians, the answer has been to act directly rather than wait for relief from above. Ever Vera, a 54-year-old lawyer, said, “The investment exceeds $36,000, but I no longer waste valuable working hours searching for fuel or managing vehicle repairs.” That calculation captures the logic behind the shift: time, money, and labor are being reclaimed from a fuel system that has become unreliable and expensive.
The number of electric vehicles in Bolivia climbed from 500 to 3,352 in the last five years, according to the Single Registry for Tax Administration, which compiles data on tax-paying vehicles. The most significant surge was recorded over the last two years, coinciding with the fuel crisis. Even so, electric vehicles still make up only a tiny fraction of the estimated 2.6 million vehicles in the country of almost 12 million people. The vast majority of these vehicles were imported from China, followed by the United States.
Freddy Koch, an electromobility expert with the independent nonprofit organization Swisscontact, said, “The growth is exponential.” He noted that while these vehicles are being purchased by more affluent buyers, he expects them to gain broader appeal and predicts that the total number of electric vehicles could triple in as little as two to three years. Paz also eliminated import tariffs on all types of automobiles, a move that has multiplied the number of importers competing with one another to bring these vehicles into Bolivia at a lower cost.
A New Market, Still Built on Uneven Ground
The rising number of electric vehicles has created new opportunities for 38-year-old electrician Marcelo Laura. A month ago, he identified a lucrative niche in the installation of residential and commercial charging stations. Laura said, “There aren’t many public charging stations,” and added, “A year ago, I thought it was practically impossible to think that people would actually be bringing in electric cars.”
That scarcity remains central to the story. Even as the market shifts, the infrastructure is thin, the costs are high, and the people with enough money to adapt first are the ones able to buy their way around the crisis. The rest are left with lines, repairs, and the consequences of decisions made by presidents, state companies, and import rules far above street level.