In an event attended by the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), Milan Nedeljkovic, member of the Board of Directors of BMW, announced an investment of 800 million euros to promote electromobility in the country.
The resources will be used mainly to integrate its plant in San Luis Potosí into its global electromobility network. In this regard, Nedeljkovic revealed that the Neue Klasse all-electric model will be produced starting in 2027.
To this end, a plant dedicated to the production of high-voltage batteries will be built in the northern state of Mexico.
Currently, the assembly complex in the middle of the Potosi desert manufactures some 320 luxury, conventional and hybrid cars per day, all of which are made to order. With the new investment, the plan is to gradually increase to 500 cars per day.
Read also: Mexico Set Up Working Group for the Electric Transportation in Mexico
Focus on Batteries
The new in-house batteries – which until now have been imported from China – promise to be more efficient, allowing more kilometers to be covered, one of the major bottlenecks in electromobility. The lithium for these batteries will come from Australia and Argentina.
Another problem for the development of the electric vehicle industry in Latin America is the almost non-existent charging network. That’s why all BMW electric cars come with a home charger. But on long trips it can still be difficult to find charging stations. To speed up the installation of such infrastructure, BMW recently signed an agreement with the company Evergo.
From Mexico, BMW exports high-end models such as the M2, 2-series and 3-series to 74 countries, many of which have free trade agreements. The main customer is the United States, although the European market is also very important.
Foreign sales of automobiles account for a quarter of total exports, amounting to more than US$100 billion a year, and are one of the main drivers of Latin America’s second largest economy.
Public-private Partnership
During the meeting, López Obrador stated that the future lies in electric mobility. The president visited the highly robotized factory and thanked BMW for investing in Mexico, creating some 1,000 additional jobs.
“Fair wages and with (social) benefits is what we want,” said AMLO during his speech. He spoke of his social programs and recalled that his government’s focus is on lowering poverty, which affects 44% of the population.
The German Ambassador, Wolfgang Doldt, underlined the strategic importance of Mexico for the German automotive industry and the great potential the country has in renewable energies.
“German companies think long-term,” he said, and recalled that since 2021 they have invested some 2.5 billion euros in the country. Doldt added that physical and legal security, as well as access to green energies, are important conditions for German investors, in the midst of the energy transition.
