Latin-American E-Mobility Study Mission, Colombia & Chile (for Cuenca)
Cities Forum designed and coordinated a Latin-American study mission to Colombia and Chile for Cuenca's mobility decision-makers, as a phase of the eCuenca Electromobility Plan.
Year: 2022 | Client: GIZ Ecuador / TUMIVolt — Municipality of Cuenca delegation | Country: Colombia (Bogotá, Medellín) & Chile (Santiago)
Cities Forum designed and coordinated a Latin-American study mission to Colombia and Chile for Cuenca's mobility decision-makers, as a phase of the eCuenca Electromobility Plan. Peer learning from cities that have already deployed the solutions under consideration is one of the most effective ways to build confidence and refine measures; the mission exposed Cuenca's team directly to proven regional practice in electric public transport, e-logistics, shared bikes and cycling infrastructure.
Our approach
The Colombia leg concentrated on Bogotá and Medellín. In Bogotá the delegation visited an electric-bus electro-terminal, the "BiciCarga" e-tricycle last-mile pilot, and XCARGO, one of the region's largest electric logistics fleets, met the district mobility authority, rode Bogotá's cycling infrastructure along its emblematic corridors, and saw a shared e-bike station pilot. In Medellín the programme included the e-tricycle logistics operator LOLA and participation in the Latam Mobility Summit 2022, where Cuenca's mobility director took part, combining technical site visits with high-level regional networking. The Chile leg extended the learning to Santiago, aligned with Chile's national electromobility strategy and its large-scale electric-bus deployment.
What we delivered
Cities Forum organised the mission end to end, agendas, curated maps of technical sites, institutional meetings, logistics and delegate preparation, so that each visit translated into concrete lessons for Cuenca rather than general impressions. The explicit purpose was to validate and enrich the measures of Cuenca's electromobility plan against real deployments: which technologies and business models had worked, what the pitfalls were, and how they might be adapted to Cuenca's context.
Impact
The mission strengthened Cuenca's plan with first-hand regional evidence and built relationships across Latin America's mobility community, from operators and start-ups to city authorities. It illustrates how Cities Forum embeds structured peer learning within its planning work, and complements its European study missions with South-South exchange, helping an Andean city learn directly from its regional peers on the road to decarbonised mobility.
