The automotive sector is facing a transition towards new mobility schemes based on electric vehicles and lithium is a key pillar in the strategy .
According to the General Criteria for Economic Policy 2023, the entire lithium value chain, which goes from extraction to the production of batteries and electric cars, will have a potential value of 12 billion pesos , which is equivalent to more than a third of the value of the national Gross Domestic Product.
The exploitation of this mineral, , was nationalized after a reform to the Mining Law sent in April by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, so that its exploitation is now limited to the State.
“The Executive’s decision to maintain the value chain of products for which lithium is the main input, such as batteries and electric cars, is highly profitable from a geopolitical point of view and Mexico’s role in the new order international economy,” the document says.
The attraction of the value chain to the state of Sonora, where the only deposit with proven reserves has been found so far and which is now in the hands of the Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium.
On a preliminary basis, the federal government estimates that the attraction of the value chain to the state of Sonora – where the only deposit with proven reserves has been found so far and which is now in the hands of the Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium – will have a to GDP of an additional 0.3 percentage points in the medium term.
The recently presented document within the 2023 Federation Expenditure Budget Project (PPEF) highlights that the automotive industry is converting some of its plants to manufacture light vehicles with the aim of satisfying national and international demand , which is driven by the stimuli that the neighboring country to the north has granted to these units.
“The incentives in the United States to consume electric vehicles will be beneficial for Mexico since it will also apply to those assembled in the country. The foregoing will allow national and foreign investment to continue growing in the sector during 2023”, he maintains.
At least three automakers have confirmed the production of electric vehicles in Mexico. Ford took the first step in 2020 when it announced that it would assemble Mustang Mach-E at its plant in Cuautitlán, State of Mexico, which became the company’s first complex globally to have a lithium battery assembly process. Until today it has assembled 111,667 units of the model.
In April 2021, General Motors revealed that it would invest $1 billion in its Ramos Arizpe plant to produce electric vehicles starting in 2023. It recently confirmed that the first model would be the Blazer EV crossover and that
In the middle of the year, Audi announced that from 2027 it will assemble one at its plant in Puebla.
Most of these electric models will be exported to the US market, similar to their gasoline versions.
Organizations of the extractive sector, such as the Mexican Mining Chamber and the Association of Mining Engineers, Metallurgists and Geologists of Mexico, point out that the State will have to invest onerous amounts, in addition to the fact that it will take time to detonate the chain , since mining exploration times there are about three years.
