According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2019 the transport sector emitted 8.2 billion tons of CO2 (tCO2) into the atmosphere. The global emission trend returned after the pandemic and reached 7.7 billion tCO2 in 2021. Land transport (excluding rail) accounted for 76% of the sector’s emissions (5.860 million tCO2). Electrification is the path to decarbonization. The adoption of electric vehicles has grown exponentially, in 2021 6.6 million were sold (almost twice as many as in 2020) and in 2021 there were already 16.5 million in circulation in the world, three times as many as in 2018.
Mexico shows an important delay against the other members of the IEA. From 2016 to date, there are only 4,289 electric vehicles in Mexico, of which 1,140 were acquired in 2021. If that same year is compared with sales in China, Europe or the United States with 2.7 million, 1.2 million and 466,000, respectively, Mexico falls short. Mexico represented only 0.017% of electric vehicles sold in the world and 0.24% of those sold outside the United States, China and Europe. In terms of infrastructure, Mexico had 1,146 charging stations in 2021, 0.06% of those available in the world.
The clean mobility ecosystem focused on electric vehicles has advanced in other countries for several reasons: 1) Electric vehicles are more efficient than combustion vehicles (77% efficiency vs. 12% to 30%). 2) Electric vehicles in synergy with clean energy can achieve 0 emissions in their operation. 3) in addition to CO2, they do not emit suspended particles (PM10 and PMM2.5), SOx and NOx, thus helping air quality and reducing the prevalence of respiratory problems.
To accelerate the transition, it is necessary to think jointly about the vehicles and the charging infrastructure; if there is no infrastructure, there is no adoption of electric vehicles and vice versa, without vehicles, no infrastructure is built. For this reason, public policies and fiscal incentives must be aligned to facilitate both sides of the equation.