Sero Electric, the Argentine electric car factory that operates in Castelar, announced in November 2022 that it was launching a new version of its largest ecological vehicle, for four passengers, and that it aspired to install it in the market for taxis or urban remís, as way of gradually conquering the streets.
But none of that: the first of its models that will circulate through the public space is the original, with only two seats, and with another function: it will be
a municipal surveillance patrol car.
These days it was learned that the municipality of Morón, to which the town where the pioneering automotive company in sustainable cars is located, incorporated two units into the Citizen Security fleet, the body that does surveillance and support tasks for the police in the neighborhoods .
The main argument of the decision does not have to do with safety itself, but with the environment: having a fully electric motor, these are ecological vehicles.
One of the vehicles, already plotted and in front of the Municipality of Morón.
As detailed, the two cars purchased by the Municipality are two-seaters, the same as those that until now the company usually manufactures for security companies, airports, hotels and large factories.
The state commission is a novelty, and also unprecedented in the Buenos Aires suburbs.
In addition, the type of task they will do is support the Camera Monitoring Center, patrolling and sending alerts in an emergency, and intervening in situations that do not involve, for example, a vehicle chase.
The cars that the Commune incorporated into its citizen control fleet came from the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Nation.
"We work every day on prevention and vehicle awareness, adding environmentally friendly tools," they assured from that same area of the Commune about the decision to incorporate the Sero Electric.
Where are they going to use them?
Since they were approved for driving on public roads, in 2029, the Sero Electric can only drive on streets and avenues, since they are not adapted for routes or highways.
The maximum allowed speed they can reach is 50 kilometers per hour.
As it transpired
the municipality of Morón will allocate them to patrol in the center of Morón, one of the largest and busiest commercial poles in the West of Greater Buenos Aires, where traffic is intense, there are pedestrian streets, and high speeds are not required.
These vehicles have a 5.6-horsepower electric motor that
plugs into a conventional 220-
volt outlet, just like a cell phone.
Full charging takes
four to five hours
.
And the car is ready to go.
They will use the two electric cars to monitor the center of Morón, one of the most important commercial poles in the West of the GBA.
Among the main benefits offered by the Sero, it stands out that with a full charge, at an electricity cost of just over 100 pesos, 100 kilometers are covered.
That is to say: electricity is in this case much cheaper than any other fuel.
In addition, in these electric cars there is no cost for lubricants, oils or filters. They have an automatic gearbox with forward, reverse and neutral gear, for easy handling.
Its headlights and internal lights are entirely LED, to optimize energy consumption.
The market price of these cars for private buyers is
$20,000
, both for those with lithium batteries and those that use lead batteries, the two possibilities offered by the model.
The taxi version
The company that has its plant in the Industrial Park that is located within the Morón Air Base, on the south side of
Castelar,
launched a
four-seater version of its brand at the end of November.
They thought of it for use in tourism and airports -in internal places-, but they anticipated that
in the future it could serve as a taxi or urban remís in the streets.
The Sero Eléctric factory has been in Castelar, in the western area of Greater Bujenos Aires, since 2018.
This is the fourth approved vehicle for Sero Electric, which
has had its plant in the West since 2018.
Like the previous versions, it plugs into 220v and works entirely on electricity.
The charging and autonomy times are the same as those of the models purchased by the municipality of Morón.
In order to carry more people (the driver and three other passengers) and more weight, the new model incorporated a
more powerful motor and a battery that guarantees the autonomy
of the previous Sero Electric and even more.
Pablo Naya, manager of the factory, with one of the models approved for driving on public roads.
“We had companies that were asking us for this model to be able to mobilize internally, or for airports and hotels.
We are going to try to insert this new four-seater version in the future
into the taxi business
because we believe that they can work in the city”, anticipated Pablo Naya, president of the company.
The idea of manufacturing electric cars in the country began in 2011
, when Pablo Naya brought units with this type of motor from Italy, after an agreement with a European company to develop the tooling in Argentina with some modifications according to local tastes.
Since there were no other factories of this type in the country,
the Naya family had to fight for three years to get a law that allowed the use of these vehicles
and then more than a year to get approval.
The model that in 2019 was approved to circulate on public roads: in 2023 they will do a restyling of that and the other models.
This is how the company Sero Electric
began working at its Castelar factory in 2018 and
in 2019 it was the first in the country to approve an electric vehicle
under category L6, which corresponds to a four-wheeled motorbike that
does not exceed 50 km/hour
, with circulation restricted to the city.
Today it has four models available: Sero Electric Sedan, High Cargo, Van and Long Low Cargo.
The Sero Electric is manufactured 100% in Argentina and they are beginning to export parts to the US and Brazil, so that it can be assembled and sold there as well.
The Pandemic hit the Castelar company hard, which stopped manufacturing units until the end of 2021
.
“We were practically stopped because the demand did not exist and we work by request, not on a large scale.
Companies were not in a position to invest in mobility,” explained Naya.
Today, plans for the future include a
restyling to modernize the aesthetics of all its current models with new bodywork
and, in addition, they anticipate that fast battery charges could be carried out, which would be essential if you think about using these cars as a taxi.
With four to five hours of charging, the new Sero Electric has a range of about 100 kilometers.
In addition, it is
planning to expand to other countries
, where the electric car market is much more developed.
"With a Brazilian partner,
we are going to assemble our cars in Brazil,
we estimate that next year, and we will also send the parts to be assembled in a company in the United States," Naya said in November 2022, when the presentation was held. of the four-seater Sero Electric.
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