The Rio de Janeiro State Government and others from Brazil’s public and private sectors, including Renault-Nissan Alliance, Petrobras Distribuidora, Light, Ampla and Rio Negocios, have signed a memorandum to study the infrastructure needs for, and the feasibility of producing, electric vehicles (EVs) in the country. This project is called the Rio Capital Energy Program and the State Department of Economic Development, Energy, Industry and Services of Rio de Janeiro is coordinating it.

In terms of the different companies’ and organizations involvement in this project, each will take on a different role, according to Nissan-Renault. Petrobras Distribuidora will run the feasibility studies for implementing charging infrastructure at the company’s service stations in Rio. Rio Negocios will represent the municipality of Rio de Janeiro in the working group on electric vehicle development, and will promote the city as a business destination for companies in this market segment.

Light is an electricity distributor and retailer with four million customers in 31 cities in the Rio de Janeiro state. It will back the project’s development and contribute to the feasibility studies on implementing charging infrastructure, according to Nissan-Renault. Ampla will be involved in studying the implementation of EV infrastructure.

In terms of electric vehicle use in Brazil, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro are starting pilot programs where they are using the Nissan LEAF in the cities’ taxi fleets.