Uber's route to electrify Mexican cities

Thibaud Simphal, the company's global director of sustainability, highlights that citizens are increasingly critical of climate problems. This impacts the measures that companies implement, but especially how governments should act to encourage the use of more sustainable options.

The three pillars of the electrification of cities

Currently, Mexico is not a powerhouse in electric vehicle sales. According to Inegi data, this industry represented only 1% of the total cars purchased in 2023; However, there is more and more interest from people in this market.

To change this panorama, Simphal points out three pillars on which work must be done at the public and private levels. The first of them is to ban internal combustion cars in the medium term to encourage the sale of electric cars.

According to the National Electric Mobility Strategy, it is expected that by 2030 half of the sales of light and heavy vehicles in the country will be zero-emission units. By 2040, it is expected that all cars will be electric and hybrid, while by 2050 they will all be completely electric.

However, a considerable problem is the price of the vehicles, which are still too high for most users in Mexico, which is why, the executive highlights, it is essential to offer subsidies to motivate their acquisition.

“The number one obstacle in mobility to having a more electric fleet is the price of cars, in addition to the fact that there is still no market for second-hand cars, which is also usually an alternative for users,” he mentions.

Last October, Uber announced an agreement with the electric car company JAC so that driver partners who wish to purchase a vehicle with these characteristics obtain a 20% discount on their purchase.

Uber has a fleet of 650 electric cars, thanks to its collaboration with the Mexican company Vemo, but the goal is to have 10 times as many vehicles and reach 6,000 electric cars on the platform in the next two years.

With this collaboration as an example, he mentions, public subsidies are also required to electrify the streets and once the transition has been made to lower prices, the benefits would no longer be necessary for 100% electric mobility in the country.

Finally, the executive highlights the importance of working on both electric charging and road infrastructure. There is still fear among drivers because they don't know where they could charge their car within the city, as well as to make longer trips.

In this regard, a few days ago Vemo announced a “strategic collaboration” agreement with the Chinese automaker BYD, with which it will expand the charging network points for its vehicles.

According to the joint statement, this agreement has the main objective of strengthening the public charging network and represents the first step towards the expansion of high-demand charging centers located in Mexico City, as well as the exploration of new possible locations both in the capital as well as in other key cities, such as Guadalajara and Monterrey.

“I believe that the next two years for Mexico will be one of testing and having experts explaining to governments the importance and benefits of electromobility,” says Simphal, who concludes that the country is one of the best positioned to take advantage of this industry.

From their perspective, Mexico has a great advantage due to the interest of many foreign companies in installing their production factories, in addition to having lithium for the generation of batteries, which represents a sales scenario both within the country and for its export. “Mexico is one of the few countries in Latin America that can really build an entire electric car industry,” he concludes.