President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on June 17, during his speech at the Forum of Major Economies on Energy and Climate Action, that Mexico will join a global commitment so that by 2030 half of the vehicles produced globally are electrical.
“In our case it will be essential that just three months ago we nationalized lithium, a strategic mineral in the manufacture of batteries,” said AMLO, during his speech.
Although the Mexican government has already changed its discourse regarding alternative energies, Chávez still sees a long way to go for electric models to gain ground over gasoline, or even hybrids, in the Mexican market. According to the manager, the lack of a public policy for the acquisition and use of these units has so far stopped the development of the market.
“There could be a joint effort between authorities and manufacturers, but as long as there is a master plan, both parties can work together,” he explained.
Produce an electric in Mexico?
Most of the countries have adopted “very aggressive” goals to turn towards mobility schemes with less environmental impact and vehicle manufacturers “are seeing this and are preparing themselves,” said Chavez.
KIA has a plant in Mexico where it produces two gasoline models of its brand, Rio and Forte. Although there are other automakers that have announced millionaire investments in the last five years -close to 1,000 million dollars- to convert their plants to produce electric models, this is not the case of KIA. At least not in the short term.
“The products are there. Manufacturers are developing them, they will exist. Many of them are going to be produced in Mexico, but it is still not clear when there will be all this public policy to be able to market them,” said Chávez.