Mexico City.- The world is moving towards a transition with electric vehicles. However, despite all the incentives to start “decarbonization“in it automotive section some have been found difficulties. Mexicowhich last year launched a plan to strengthen the production of this type carhe could take advantage of the moment to put himself at the forefront, although it is not without difficulties.
Former economy secretary Tatiana Clouthier saw the possibility last week as she celebrated Mexico and Canada’s victory over the United States on the panel on auto rules of origin under the North American trade pact, known as T – MEC The former official predicted that this triumph will also explode the electric vehicle industry among developments.
“It is to applaud Mexico and Canada for the great victory that will benefit the regional economy, but above all giving reason to the two countries,” said Clouthier in an interview with Álvaro Delgado and Alejandro Páez Varela in the program. journalistwhich is broadcast on the YouTube channel of However On Air.
A year ago, Canada and Mexico filed a complaint against the United States over how to implement automotive content requirements under the US-Canada-Mexico free trade agreement that went into effect in 2020. The trading partners received the Final Report on the rules of origin for the Automotive Sector in the second week of January and the US’s interpretation of the rules is “contrary” to the USMCA, the panel said in its decision.
With the Sonora Plan, Clouthier emphasized, the development of electric cars will also be strengthened, the possibility of further development of the economy increases, and he emphasized Canada’s intention to strengthen the presence of companies in Mexico, with which “comes to strengthen industrial policy” .
Rise and Trouble in the “Electric Revolution”
The automotive industry will invest about a trillion dollars in the “electric revolution”, according to figures from Reutersas the EU and states like California have pledged to achieve full EV transition within 12 years.
In mid-2022, the European Parliament voted to end sales of new thermal vehicles by 2035. MEPs want all individual cars sold after that year to have “zero emissions”. No more gasoline and no more diesel. The European Parliament approved Brussels’ proposal to reduce emissions from new cars to zero from 2035, de facto authorizing only the sale of electric vehicles.
In August, the California state government approved a moratorium on the sale of new vehicles that run on mobile fuels from 2035, based, they argued, on the urgent need to address climate change and reduce pollution.
The Europeans have taken the lead on this issue. The share of pure electric cars will reach 30 percent in 2025 in the European market and will exceed 70 percent by 2030, over other regions of the world such as China or the United States, according to an analysis of trends by the sector prepared by the European. Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA).
According to their estimates, by 2025 China’s 100 percent electric vehicle market share will reach 32.3 percent in 2025 and rise to 58.5 percent in 2030. Meanwhile, in the United States The percentage of sales of this type of vehicle will be set for America. in 2025 with 16.4 percent and 44.8 percent in 2030.
Despite this, the organization has pointed out that by 2022 almost 20 percent of all new cars registered in China were 100 percent electric, “meaning the country is now ahead of Europe (14.1 percent) and well ahead of the U.S. (six percent)” towards the electrification of the car market.
According to Wall Street Journalwhich exclusively cites a report from “LMC Automotive and EV-Volumes.com”, 7.8 million EVs were sold worldwide in 2022, 68 percent more than in 2021. The electric vehicle market reached 10 percent of total cars sold globally, newspaper. said, the first time this has happened.
But in December, a report from the UK’s Advanced Propulsion Center brought bad news for the industry. European production of electric vehicles will fall by one million by 2025, “due to an uncertain economic outlook,” according to the December report.
Buyers are expected to stick with cheaper options – meaning petrol or diesel cars – for longer, the organization noted: “The desire for cheaper vehicles allows us to see a slower full transition to electric cars “, she says. , and also. “The recovery to 2030 that puts EVs back on track is uncertain due to the geopolitical situation and potential supply difficulties.”
Tesla, for its part, cut prices on some of its cars, including the Model Y SUV and Model 3, from one percent to as much as 20 percent in the U.S., China, Japan and South Korea, as well as in some from the eurozone. . Experts point out that this is due to high interest rates in the United States, as well as inflation.
Others consider it a move to get tax incentives and combat a declining market for its EVs: in 2020 it dominated the electric power market with 79 percent market share. By September 2022, it had dropped to 65 percent. That adds to the woes of Twitter’s controversial acquisition, as well as the slump in its stock, which has fallen 70 percent in 2022. By comparison, the benchmark index has fallen about 20 percent over the same period.
Another of the difficulties of the EV transition is also the production of charging areas for cars. Even in a region like the EU, with the most progress in this matter, almost 50 percent of all charging points for electric cars are concentrated in just two of its countries: the Netherlands (90,000 chargers) and Germany ( 60,000). ), which represent less than 10 percent of the total area of the eurozone, according to the ACEA report published last November.
The EU alone would need around 6.8 million public charging points to meet its goal of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 55 percent, “which means there needs to be an increase of more more than 22 times in less than 10 years”, he said. qualified. This is without counting Asia or North America, for example, where this type of recharge area is still limited.
Mexico and its “Sonora Plan”.
Given this situation, Mexico already announced last year the Sonora Clean Energy Plan, “which will boost the use of lithium”, key to battery production, while also focusing on semiconductors and electric vehicle production.
“It is a temporary project in the transition of Mexico and the United States towards clean energy and electromobility, which will be a point of reference for the continent and in which the entity will play a central role due to its privileged location geographical and its raw wealth. materials such as lithium and graphite, essential elements in the processes of the electromobility industry,” said the Council for Sustainable Development of Sonora.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard explained that the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has chosen to redouble its efforts in terms of climate action to increase the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by up to 35 percent. John Kerry, the US presidential special envoy for climate, assured that these measures put Mexico “in a leading role in consolidating a North American energy power”.
Alfonso Durazo, Governor of Sonora, indicated at the time that, together with the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), it was agreed to modify the training programs for engineers, with the aim of specializing their profile in the subject of semiconductors. in addition to restarting Arizona’s science and infrastructure model under the Sonora Plan.
Clouthier, speaking about the Sonora Plan and the Mexican and Canadian triumph on the panel on automobile rules at T-MEC, emphasized: “This has an important consequence that is going almost, I would say, in line with what they agreed on “The summit of the three heads of state: if they talk about strengthening the region, it strengthens it. The automobile and auto parts industry is a super powerful industry,” he stressed.
The North American Declaration, issued by López Obrador, US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, already refers to this section.
“We will continue to implement and build on the 2021 North American Leaders Summit commitments on climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience, renewing our focus on reducing methane emissions from all sources, with a new focus on waste emissions,” they said.
“We will act quickly to accelerate the energy transition by implementing clean energy solutions, increasing the production and adoption of zero-emission vehicles in North America and switching to cleaner fuels,” the statement said.
Another good news for the country is that in October, Volkswagen in Mexico announced an investment package that initially includes 763.5 million dollars for the development of projects and the transformation of the facilities of this factory for the transition to the production of hybrid and electric vehicles.
However, for Jeremy Martin, Vice President of Energy and Sustainability at the non-governmental organization Institute of the Americas, the Sonora Plan, a “political result of a lot of effort” by the United States, still lacks a defined model. “At the moment we don’t know how much we know [sobre este plan]. It’s just a profile, but the fine print is missing. There are objectives, some ideas, but there is still a lot to determine”, he analyzed Open Democracy.
During the COP26 climate summit in December 2021, Mexico adhered to the Glasgow Agreement for zero-emission vehicles that aims to eliminate the production of internal combustion units by 2040. Mexico’s plan is to promote the production of electric cars and that lithium extracted to be used in the production of batteries, but at the moment there are no details of this operation and it is not clear how there would be an integration of the chain between the extraction of lithium and the production of batteries, among other things.
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This content was published by SinEmbargo, with information from EuropaPress, RFI and Open Democracy.
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