Mexico has an objective between eyebrow and eyebrow: prop up and boost its economy. Within the 13 points of the ‘Plan Mexico’, technology occupies an important point with the ‘Kutsari’ strategy to develop semiconductors, but they also want to create cheap electric cars for the Mexican user. The name of this project is ‘Olinia’ and, although it is not known how vehicles will be, we do know the Price: between 90,000 and 150,000 pesos.
The question here is where the competition is in the photo of the electric car in Mexico.
Was in. Mexico has focused in recent years on being a car assemblador for the US market. BMW, Honda, Mazda, Kia, Nissan, the Stellantis, Toyota, Audi or Volkswagen group have their main plants in the region in Mexico, but with the tariff war, brands such as Honda or Hyundai announced that they were going to strengthen their presence on US soil to the detriment of the Mexican industry.
With that panorama, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced Olinia. These are three small cars described as 100% made vehicles made in Mexico, destined for personal mobility, neighborhood mobility and transport of “last mile” goods and whose prices will be 90,000 pesos for the cheapest model and 150,000 for the truck/van.
Track. Nothing more of these cars is known, apart from the price they want to achieve and the possible design. However, there are already market alternatives that can give us a track of where things will go with the Olinia family. As our companions from WorldOfSoftware Mexico point out, there are a couple of Aliexpress cars that are very similar to what could end up being two of the Olinia.
Built by Chang Li, one is a two -door electric car with an autonomy of about 60 km for a price of 36,000 pesos without shipping.
The other is larger, with more power and a price of 83,000 pesos without shipping.
Another tiny car is Kiwo, also for urban mobility with 40 km/h of maximum speed and 60 kilometers of autonomy by 99,999 pesos (this does include shipping costs).
Competence. There are three examples of car that you must Buy on a website and import on your own, but … what prices do we talk when we look at the electricity market already settled in Mexico? The panorama is very different. On the one hand, there is the Zacua MX2, which is one of the first 100% Mexican electric cars designed for urban mobility, with an autonomy of 200 kilometers, a speed of 85 km/Hy a more apparent design than that of the other three previously commented.
It has regenerative brakes with ABS and is two -seater. In his favor he plays that it is a national product manufactured in Puebla, but there is also an inconvenience: it is manufactured on request at a price of 599,900 pesos. We also have the JAC E10X, a compact with autonomy of up to 360 kilometers and four doors for 371,000 pesos.
The Renault Kwid E-Tech starts from 315,000 pesos with 300 km of autonomy and Sev E-Wan Cross Lite has 200 km of autonomy and part of the 299,300 pesos. Another contender is the Byd Mini Dolphin with autonomy of up to 300 km and from 415,800 pesos.
El E-Wan Cross
Plan. These four alternatives are compact (larger than the two -door olinia and it would be necessary to see how they are in front of the four -door), but although they do not go wrong, they play with an obvious disadvantage: they are not supported by the government. Because, between those 90,000 and 150,000 pesos of the Median Olinia, we would talk about a compact that should not have registration problems in the country by being driven by the government and that, although in benefits something below can be left below, will have a very sweet price.
Olinia, in addition, is the catalyst for the extraction and prosecution of lithium on Mexican soil. Although Mexico has important lithium reserves, a crucial component to produce batteries, it does not produce it at an industrial scale, and Olinia could be the necessary push for the country to become a relevant player in the field of something so crucial for the future of mobility such as lithium.
Consequences? This is playing with the glass ball, but seeing that Olinia seems a priority for the current government, who are already visiting factories from different states to see which is the ideal candidate for the manufacture of vehicles, it seems clear that they will try to do everything possible to stick to the price announced a few months ago.
And, if happening, although the benefits of these vehicles are below those of the competition, in the end they would be appealing to the Mexican user twice: national car versus foreign and, above all, much cheaper. Now we just have to wait to see how Olinia is taking shape, since there are too many questions in the air.
Images | Government of Mexico
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