The Mexican market had maintained itself for years by combining its offer between locally manufactured products, in some twenty automakers distributed throughout the national territory, and imported cars, mainly from India and Brazil, but the story is already different.
From the perspective of Brais Álvarez, JD Power account manager, China will remain the main supplier of vehicles for the local market in this decade, by the installed capacity of the Asian giant in productive terms.
At the end of 2022, the country assembled 26,082,220 vehicles, equivalents to the combined production of the United States, Japan, India and South Korea, according to data from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA).
“By 2030, it’s complicated that we can win all that participation, because China has done a great job in terms of manufacturing, it is too competitive, but the important thing is to take steps in the right direction, and that is what is going to be done, because otherwise we would lose competitiveness ”, added Álvarez in an interview with Expansion.
Why Chinese?
General Motors (GM) was one of the first brands to offer Chinese models in Mexico. In 2005, it sold 82 units of the four-door Cavalier assembled in that country, according to historical data from the Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), but in recent years other brands have followed the same steps.
The automaker of French origin, Peugeotreleased China-assembled Landtrek pickup in November 2020, while Dodge he marked his foray in October 2021 with Journey. In October of last year, Ford began to bring the SUV Territory assembled in that country.
Francisco Garza, president and general director of GM in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, points out that when it comes to a global companyThis contributes to the fact that their portfolios are made up of vehicles from all over the world, as well as from Brazil and Korea.
“I think we have a balance very good. Today the strategy has been to strengthen our Chevrolet brand by taking advantage of the manufacturing sources that we have globally, China one of these, and we have had an important success both in the profitability of the organizationas well as in the domestic market share”, he adds in an interview with Expansion.
For his part, Odracir Barqueira, incoming general director of the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry, highlights that although China has positioned itself as “a very important producer” of gasoline-powered vehicles, but he still considers it premature to know if the trend will continue in the middle of the shift to electric drives.
“It is too early to tell, because this transformation of the industry is just beginning, then the players are not fully accommodated… That is an issue that already at the strategy level of the different producer countries and of the different countries that use vehicles will have to see how they enter the game”, he adds in an interview with Expansion.