MEXICO CITY (AP) — Snubbed by Tesla, Mexico’s new president pledged Friday to create a Mexican-made small, inexpensive electric car to compete with autos imported from China.

President Claudia Sheinbaum mentioned Teslas had been too “onerous,” or costly, for the Mexican market anyway. Tesla’s least expensive automobile, the Mannequin 3, prices about $30,000.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned in July the corporate had “paused” plans for a plant in Mexico, citing Donald Trump’s remarks about doable auto tariffs.

Sheinbaum mentioned her authorities will attempt to convey collectively Mexican corporations and researchers to provide a “compact, low cost electrical automobile.”

“The concept is to make use of Mexican corporations and Mexican researchers’ ingenuity, to convey them collectively to assemble this electrical automobile,” Sheinbaum mentioned. “The concept is to create manufacturing chains in order that this complete electrical automobile is made in our nation.”

She cited electrical autos from China and India — a few of which are already flooding into Mexico — as examples. Small electrical motorbikes from China have flooded Mexican streets in latest months, however Sheinbaum mentioned motorbikes, which in Mexico are sometimes ridden by three individuals at a time, had been too harmful.

The plan faces numerous issues, together with the truth that Mexico doesn’t produce any lithium, the important thing ingredient for batteries, nor any mass amount of batteries. Excessive home electrical energy charges may be a roadblock.

There are some clay-encased lithium deposits in northern Mexico, which the federal government nationalized beneath the final administration. Nonetheless, Sheinbaum mentioned the methods for mining that lithium weren’t at the moment commercially viable, and that manufacturing from these sources was “slightly bit extra long run.”

And anyone in search of to cost a battery at dwelling might face punishingly excessive payments. Mexico subsidizes low-level home energy consumption at about 10 cents per kilowatt hour, a bit decrease than the U.S. common.

However a vastly larger charge kicks in for any electrical energy consumption above the minimal stage, which is mainly simply sufficient to energy a dozen gentle bulbs, a washer and a fridge.

Furthermore, Mexico’s decrepit energy traces and transmission services are barely in a position to sustain with present demand, not to mention widespread at-home charging of car batteries.

Sheinbaum didn’t say what gross sales worth Mexico was aiming at for its ultra-small electrical automobile, however that could possibly be one other drawback.

Musk mentioned in July “I feel we have to see simply the place issues stand after the election. Trump has mentioned that he’ll put heavy tariffs on autos produced in Mexico. So it doesn’t make sense to speculate rather a lot in Mexico if that’s going to be the case.”

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Observe AP’s protection of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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