Argentina (National University of La Plata) Agreement Signed to Develop Electric Transport & Facilitate Study Trips for Engineering Students

It is a specific agreement signed by the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of La Plata (UNLP), Marcos Actis, and the owner of the Empresa Nueve de Julio SAT, Walter Mastropietro. The agreement aims to promote joint actions to care for the environment and the development of a modern, inclusive and sustainable transportation system.

The transformation of buses from combustion to electric facilitates progress towards the incorporation of sustainable technologies. Currently, transportation in Argentina depends almost 100% on fossil fuels. This translates into greenhouse gases, other particles suspended in the air (soot) and noise pollution that could be reduced or avoided with the move towards electromobility.

The Faculty of Engineering, through the Aerospace Technology Center (CTA), will provide the Nueve de Julio SAT company with technical assistance, training and technology transfer to the electric-powered passenger public transport unit powered by lithium batteries. Meanwhile, the company will make a service available to Engineering so that students can make study trips and/or visits to works programmed by the Faculty, within 200 km.

“With this agreement, we continue to move forward with the company Nueve de Julio in this exchange whose purpose is the transportation of all our students in units that work with clean energy” explained Marcos Actis. And he added “we have already achieved the conversion of a unit that is in the Hernandez terminal, ready for use”

After investigations and this pilot test, the feasibility of the reconversion of groups and their immediate commissioning is evident. In addition to caring for the environment, the proposal of the university and the company allows contributing to the generation of added value in Argentina and the opening of new research and development initiatives framed in the energy transition process.

The agreement also provides that the company must have units in perfect condition, cleanliness and that comply with all the regulations in force in the country for passenger transport in order to comply with the commitment assumed.

It should be noted that Nueve de Julio SAT is one of the main operators of the Urban Transport System in the area of ​​La Plata and the province of Buenos Aires. It manages the Western lines, 508, 561, 215, 225, 414 and the University line.

Another important point of the agreement is the commitment to seek solutions in the absence of regulations that regulate and allow the use of units powered by alternative renewable energies at the provincial and municipal levels.

“The shift towards electric mobility is something that is coming. In the world it is already being done and in Argentina it also happens. Laws are being prepared so that mobility is electric, especially in the case of those that pollute the most, such as the public transport system”, Actis pointed out.

In that sense, both the faculty and the transport company, undertook to request the pertinent organisms the dictation of the regulatory norms on the use of units destined to the public transport of people.

Likewise, in the recitals of the initialed document, the importance of the initiatives promoted by the UNLP that are linked to the propulsion of vehicles with renewable energies is highlighted. Express mention is also made of the need to continue with preliminary tests for the development of sustainable public transport with the same technology.