Mexico City, Mexico — President Claudia Sheinbaum has presented car company Olinia, the first Mexican manufacturer of mini electric vehicles. “They will be safe, electric mini vehicles, with Mexican components. They will not emit greenhouse gases and their operating costs will be lower than those of a gasoline vehicle, Sheinbaum reported.
The National Polytechnic Institute and the National Technological Institute of Mexico were selected for the development of the mini-vehicle technology with an investment 25 million pesos in 2025.
“So far we have the working team. They have already made progress. In due course, private companies that have also been dedicated for some time in Mexico to producing electric motors in particular will be invited,” she said.
In this regard, she said that the Government of Mexico supports the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation in the design of the mini vehicle, while for its construction, it is estimated to have assembly plants in different parts of the Republic, which will make this means of transport more accessible.
“The idea is that the government supports the Secretariat to generate this design and then, when it comes to building the vehicles, the parts can be built in different places and assembled in different places, that is one of the objectives.
“Moving a car from Sonora to Yucatan has a cost and that increases the cost of the vehicle. If we can have an assembly plant in Yucatan and one in Sonora, it would be very good to have regional assembly plants that allow us to provide the vehicle at a lower cost,” she said.
The Secretary of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation, Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez reported that Olinia, whose meaning in Nahuatl is ‘to move’ or ‘movement’, is a watershed in the Mexican industry, which highlights the connection between academia, the government and the productive sector in pursuit of technological sovereignty and the well-being of Mexico.
“Through Olinia, we seek to achieve a successful technological transfer from the academic and research sector to create companies, in this case, a public-private partnership.
“This is one of the ways in which the shared prosperity model will be reflected, by allocating a percentage of the income obtained to science and education,” she said.
She highlighted that the Olinia automaker addresses an issue of energy transition and to the care of the environment by reducing fossil fuel emissions. In addition, thanks to its size, it will optimize the use of urban space and mobility in the cities of Mexico, and its projected price will be competitive and accessible.
The coordinator of the Olinia project, Roberto Capuano Tripp, highlighted that the goal is to launch three vehicles by the end of the current presidential six-year term.
The vehicles will consist of cars for personal mobility, neighborhood mobility that serves a sector that provides motorcycle taxi services in different cities across the country and vehicles for last-mile deliveries for merchandise distribution.
He explained that these units will have an estimated price of between 90,000 and 150,000 pesos depending on the model through fair financing plans so that electric mobility is within reach of all Mexicans.
“We will achieve this by designing a multipurpose modular platform for all three. This means that the chassis, engine, drivetrain and battery will be developed once, and on that platform we will use different bodies to give them different uses,” he added.
He said the vehicles will be zero-emission, meaning they do not emit greenhouse gases; they do not make noise and have a much lower operating cost than a gasoline vehicle; and they are expected to have lithium batteries.
He pointed out that in 2025 a budget of 25 million pesos was allocated to the National Polytechnic Institute and the National Technological Institute of Mexico to promote the project.
