- Mexico aims to develop its EV production and supply chain
- Currently, Mexico's global automakers are assembling EVs and other US vehicles
- The crackdown could be the first step against Trump's tax policy
Mexico develops a small electric car to resist cheap goods from China and India.
In her opening speech on October 1, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said EV prototypes have already been built, Bloomberg reported. This project, called Olinia, aims to improving domestic supply chains for EV-related components.
“We're going to create a supply chain so that everything in the electric car is made domestically and we import little by little,” Sheinbaum told Bloomberg and other media outlets at the conference.
BYD Dolphin EV – Euro spec
Sheinbaum did not name the specific companies that will be involved in the project, the report said, but he said that there are already many manufacturing parts in Mexico such as electric motors, and that “the idea is to bring them together with researchers in Mexico so that he can assemble this electric car.”
The all-Mexican EV could compete with Indian imports, which are used as taxis in southern parts of Mexico, and cheap Chinese imports from automakers like BYDlooking to increase sales to Mexico as top officials pledge to reduce imports from Asia, Bloomberg notes.
Right now, Mexico is building hundreds of thousands of vehicles to the US every year, but it buys a few of them—especially EVs. GM has invested heavily in its Mexico plant as an EV assembly point, and BMW is expanding its Mexico plant to produce EVs starting in 2027. Tesla had Mexico in mind but now it seems that he has spent it.
BMW Group Plant San Luis Potosí in Mexico
It's unclear if a small EV designed to compete against cheaper Indian and Chinese models would be a viable product in the US, but if it were to be sold here it could face dramatically higher costs depending on the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election.
Donald Trump has promised a 100% tariff on Mexican-made vehicles imported into the US—EVs or not. Trump's policy also suggests dismantling what was known as NAFTA. Is Mexico travel ready? Although Mexico's new president hasn't specifically called for it, it's hard to imagine.