• Mexico aims to manufacture its first electric vehicles with almost entirely local components.
• Mexico’s EV market is expected to grow 25%–30% annually over the next five years.
• Budget cuts, limited charging infrastructure, and difficulty sourcing lithium could delay Olinia’s rollout.

Named Olinia, or “to move” in the Nahuatl Indigenous language, they will be the first EVs to be fully engineered and assembled in Mexico. They will be “safe, efficient, sustainable, and within reach for millions of Mexicans,” Roberto Capuano, the director of the project, said during the presentation. The first model will be ready by the time the 2026 World Cup kicks off in Mexico City, and be available to the general public by 2030, he said.

Slated to make EVs with almost entirely Mexican components, the Olinia project is touted as the answer both to the government’s ambitious goal of generating 45% clean electricity by 2030, and the influx of imported Chinese EVs, including BYD and Chery, which now account for nearly a tenth of new cars sold in Mexico.

But Olinia faces a number of challenges, including an inadequate budget, an undeveloped lithium industry that is essential for battery manufacture, and an unreasonable timeline, experts said.