Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Text | Dedee

In 2022, China's car exports surpassed Germany and South Korea, reaching 3.32 million vehicles, an increase of 56.8 per cent over the same period last year. Become the second automobile exporter in the world, after Japan.

At the same time, there is another developing country that overtook Germany and South Korea with 2.8656 million vehicles, ranking third in the list of car exports, after Japan and China-Mexico.

Earlier, Mexico not only surpassed China in terms of vehicle exports and the export value of auto goods such as spare parts, but also guaranteed ten to five all the year round, which can be called the light of developing countries.

For example, in 2021, although China's car exports were second only to Japan and Germany, with more than 2 million vehicles, China ranked 12th in the value of world automobile exports with US $22.4 billion, accounting for only 3.2% of the world's total automobile exports. Mexico ranks fifth with $39.9 billion, making it the only developing country in the top five, accounting for 5.6 per cent of the world's total car exports.

From this point of view, Mexico is an excellent country in automobile trading, culture, manufacturing, innovation and so on.

Yes and no.

At the end of the 19th century, the "westward movement" made a large number of Americans stationed in Mexico. Americans not only reclaimed and usurped a large area of Mexican territory, but also brought cars and other modern mechanical tools.

The first traceable car in Mexico was brought into the country in 1895 by a man named Fernando de Teresa. Before long, there were more and more car brands in Mexico, such as Mercedes-Benz, Fiat, Oldsmobile, Delaunay Belleville, Pope-Toledo and so on.

In 1903, Mexico had an independent car company that included not only a showroom, but also a sales floor and a repair shop. Of course, it is the Ford T that really gives Mexicans a taste of the unique charm of cars. Due to the large imports of Ford T, Mexico became the most important exporter of American car brands in the early 20th century. It is not just Ford, but a large number of American brands, such as Oldsmobile, Packard, Cadillac and so on, have found bosom friends in Mexico.

In 1925, Ford established its first car factory in Mexico. In the 1950s, Volkswagen of Germany traveled westward to America, took the Beetle to Mexico, and built two factories in Listak and Puebla in Mexico in the 1960s, which established the special status of "Detroit in South America" in central Mexico.

After more than half a century, the world's large and small car brands have gone to the enclosure to build factories-Audi, BMW, GM, Fiat Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Kia. Coupled with the announcement of the establishment of the North American Free Trade area (NAFTA) in 1994, Mexico signed free trade agreements with 45 countries around the world and exempted trade tariffs, resulting in a large number of car factories and parts suppliers in its central highlands.

As a result, Mexico, which faces the sea on both sides, soon became the fifth largest producer of spare parts in the world, the seventh largest in the world and the second largest automobile manufacturing base in the Americas. Therefore, the comprehensive strength of many brands of Mexican factories can not be said to be the famous mule and horse kneeling clan in the car circle, but also the Roman aristocracy in the car circle.

Take, for example, the Audi plant in Puebla, a low-carbon plant that specializes in solar energy. With its ultra-low carbon emissions and high degree of automation, it is regarded as the most advanced automobile factory in America. The Puebla Audi plant has an annual production capacity of 124000 vehicles and specializes in Audi's Q5 series SUV-- such as Q5, SQ5 and Q5 TFSI hybrids. And the Audi Q5 produced by this factory in Mexico is exported all over the world.

And Honda, whose Zelaya plant in Guanajuato is the most important and largest production base for small cars in the Americas. It mainly produces two trump cards, the HR-V Cross-Border SUV and the Fido hatchback; in addition, another Honda factory in the Mexican state of Jalisco specializes in CR-V.

GM has built four large factories in Mexico. They are the Sirau factory, the San Luis Potosi factory, the Toluca factory and the Ramos Alispe factory. The first two mainly produce Chevrolet's explorer and Silverado pickup series, as well as GMC's high-end pickup Sierra, medium-sized SUV Terrain. The Toluca plant is a parts factory that specializes in the assembly of propulsion systems and the manufacture of aluminum components.

Undoubtedly the most important is the Ramos Alispe factory in the north. Until the year before last, the factory had been producing Chevrolet's Cruz, Sonic, Trail Blazers and models based on the fifth-generation C1 platform. Since the year before last, GM has been injecting money into the factory to expand the production line of battery packs and motors, with the aim of turning it into the group's fifth pure electric car factory. At present, the investment has exceeded 1 billion US dollars, and the Ramos Alispe factory is expected to start producing pure electric vehicles in the second half of this year.

BMW also has the same train of thought and action.

In February, overseas news reported that BMW would invest 800 million euros to develop a new all-electric model, the Neue Klasse, at its San Luis Potosi plant, along with a new high-voltage battery assembly center, to help the company increase its electric car sales to half of its global sales by 2030.

Prior to this, the San Luis Potosi factory has an annual production capacity of 175000 vehicles, specializing in the production of 3-series and 2-series coupe. Among them, the M series is the best-selling model, and the new generation M2 is the exclusive product of the factory.

The most famous must be Volkswagen.

The Puebla plant, which was born in the 1960s, is now not only the longest-running factory in Mexico, but also the largest car factory in Mexico and one of the largest factories in the world of Volkswagen, with an annual production capacity of 300000 vehicles. Now it is mainly responsible for the production of new Jetta, new SUV Taos and new extended version.

This one-stop, full-process super factory is best known for Volkswagen Beetles-10 million in 1967, 20 million in 1981 and 21.5 million in 1981. The Puebla plant has been the exclusive global producer of Volkswagen beetles since 1997 until it stopped production in 2019.

In addition to contract manufacturing for car brands such as Europe, the United States and Japan, Mexicans have been trying to build their own cars for nearly a century.

The earlier record is Solana Motors, which was born in 1936 and was founded by the Solana brothers. It is more like a workshop than a factory. From 1936 to 2003, this small workshop was created with reserve. 43 cars. Of course, from the outside, these Mexican cars are quite beautiful. However, most of their accessories come from brands such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, such as a car called Deportivo II, whose core is the Nissan Datsun engine.

At present, this small workshop is still in operation, but I don't know how many cars they have built in the 20 years since 2003.

Founded in 1987, Mastretta, a former supplier to Volkswagen, built a two-door coupe called Mastretta MXT between 2011 and 2014, with a 2.0-liter turbocharged GDI I4 engine and a five-speed manual transmission. A total of 200 cars have been built, each priced at $60,000 and are said to have caused a sensation and are known as the "Mexican version of Ferrari".

Of course, what we are most familiar with is the VUHL brand, a hybrid brand created by Mexico and India, which has only launched a supercar VUHL 05. It is said that this sports car is simple and interesting to drive, its design is quite mature, and it has a small fan base in Europe and the United States.

There is also a Mexican state-owned car brand called VAM (Veh í culos Automotores Mexicanos), which used to be quite famous. It is said that they built a flagship model called VAM Gremlin, which is still talked about by many veteran Latin American drivers as "the light of ink cars".

Because VAM makes cars at a high level, he builds his own cars as well as for Jeep, Renault and Chrysler. Unfortunately, during the Mexican debt crisis in the 1980s, the local government mortgaged the factory to Renault in order to repay the money, and VAM became the moonlight of countless Latin Americans. It is said that until now, many Latin American vintage car dealers have a good heart for VAM.

There are also relatively short-lived Mexican brands such as Lerma, most of which we have never heard of.

In short, although Mexico's automobile industry has been developing in a daze over the past century, its own car brand is always in a stage of creative ideas but difficult mass production.

According to your stomach, no matter how developed Mexico's car industry is, how amazing the export volume and the amount of exports are, it has little to do with Mexico's car owners.

In other words, Mexico's export volume and domestic sales are simply the difference between Lu Xun and Luda. Domestic sales in 2022 were 1.08 million, an increase of 7% over 2021, still far below the export volume of 2.8656 million. Of course, the result is much better than it was more than 20 years ago, when Mexico, the largest car producer in Latin America, produced nearly 1.8 million cars a year. Nearly 92% of them are sold to the American market.

At present, Mexico has a total population of more than 127 million, with an average of 41.7 million cars per thousand people.

The latter figure is significantly higher than in countries such as China, Thailand and Brazil. However, due to the "special care" of the North American Free Trade area agreement, Mexico receives a large number of used cars from the United States every year.

These used cars are classic old cars at best, but they all belong to the category of scrapping-long age, poor condition, serious excessive exhaust emissions and other minor problems, as well as many serious accident cars, all like to be transported to Old Mo. this has directly led to more than 60% of the cars on the Mexican road being over-aged for more than 10 years, and serious air pollution in large and small cities in Mexico. The Mexican government has not only formulated relevant vehicle emission standards in recent years, but also has been planning to introduce car scrapping standards.

The main reason why Mexicans like to buy used cars is not because they are poor. In fact, Mexico's per capita income is about the same as that of China.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis once estimated that Mexican workers earn $4 an hour, which is about the same as in China, though less than 1/5 of American workers. The per capita disposable income is 37000 yuan, which is similar to that of China.

The problem is that the local people have no habit of saving money. Most of them are drunk today, and they will worry about tomorrow. This spending habit has also forced local companies to pay their monthly salaries in two installments. Because if the salary is glowed at once at the beginning of the month, many families will have to eat dirt in the second half of the month.

Of course, the key reason must be caused by the Volkswagen Beetle.

Since the 1980s, the Volkswagen Beetle has been the mascot of Mexico, along with tequila, Taco and chili.

At that time, the number of beetles in Mexico was resounding all over the world.

For Mexicans, a good beetle, as long as its exhaust gas is up to standard, can climb a mountain and run, and looks like a beetle, no matter how many years it has been driven, no matter whether it has a roof or not, it is an excellent beetle that can be handed over to the next generation as a family heirloom.

Many people have even become accustomed to buying an N-hand Beetle for a small amount of money and repairing it by themselves. And then buy the second, the third, the fourth. move in circles. Some people even set up a travel fleet or taxi company after owning N beetles, allowing tourists to visit old Mexican buildings in these dilapidated cars, in an effort to achieve the "integration of city and bus".

Although the production of beetles was discontinued a few years ago, all kinds of bugs can still be seen on the roads in Mexico. For the locals, the Beetle is not only a vehicle for transportation, but also a cultural symbol.

Many people also use the beetle to refit, or use it to participate in modification competitions, or use it instead of cattle and horses to cultivate land. Even for a long time-until now, Mohs still think that if the Beetle does not change, it would be better to push the Caribbean Sea.

The Beatles have even affected the car-buying preferences of Mexicans today.

According to the Mexican Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the top 10 models in sales last year were: Alto, with a total sales of about 50,000 vehicles; Nissan Versa, which sold more than 40,000 vehicles; GM Aveo, which sold more than 30,000 vehicles; Nissan March, fourth, with annual sales of about 30,000 vehicles; GM Onix ranked fifth, with more than 23000 vehicles MG5 imports from China ranked sixth, with sales of more than 20, 000 vehicles, followed by Nissan Sentra, Volkswagen Vento, Suzuki Swift and Renault Kwid.

All are cheap and durable cars or minicars.

According to previous sales data, several of Mexico's top 10 best-selling cars are imported from other countries, especially the MG5 and GM Aveo and Onix, all made in China.

In the past two years, the country with the largest number of car exports in China is Mexico-- especially last year, the total number of passenger cars sold to Mexico accounted for 15.2% of the total sales in the local market. This means that one out of every six cars sold there is from China.

However, according to the database of the Central Bank of Mexico, for a long time since 1993, Mexico has been in a surplus in bilateral trade related to the automobile industry of China and Mexico, especially in the trade of large-engine passenger cars. In 2013 and 2014, for example, the gap was once more than $13.7 and $1.63 billion.

Data show that Mexican passenger cars exported to the Chinese market are Dodge Coolway commercial vehicles made in Mexico during the period 2012-2015; Ford's Lincoln MKZ;2014-2015 in 2017-2020; GM Cadillac SRX;2012-2018 beetles in Mexico; Mercedes-Benz GLB commercial cars from 2020 to the present; and Audi Q5 and BMW 2-Series since 2021.

Although China exported a batch of Jiefang trucks in 2008, the export of a large number of passenger cars to Mexico did not officially begin until 2019, and it was aimed at the Mexican weakness-small cars, such as GM Aveo and Cavalier, which sold 84664 small cars in Mexico that year. Changan, SAIC Roewe, Jianghuai, BAIC and so on have also joined since 2020.

In the first nine months of last year, nearly 120000 passenger cars made in China were sold in Mexico, of which GM and SAIC Roewe are the most popular. Since 2021, the former has exported eight cars, commercial vehicles and small transport vehicles, including Envision, Captiva, Tornado Van, Groove, Onix, Aveo, Cavalier and Captiva, to Mexico, accounting for 63.2% of China's total exports. SAIC Roewe's ZS / HS / MG5 / RX8 accounted for 28.1%.

It is worth mentioning that the Onix, Aveo, Cavalier and Captiva mentioned earlier were all made in Mexico. In 2017, GM withdrew all these local best-selling models from Mexico, moved to China, and then sold them to Mexico. This new form of export and then domestic sales, it is estimated that the hearts of Mexicans also rushed to a thousand devil peppers.

However, with regard to the sales of local cars, the Mexican government thinks that it is not a big problem, because their population structure is good, the birth rate is high, there is still a long way to go from an aging society, and there is no shortage of consumers and labor in the future. not to worry about the development of new energy vehicles.

Moreover, compared with Thailand, the head of ASEAN, Mexico has held a number of trump cards.

The first is the inflation reduction Act, or IRA, passed in the United States in August last year. Under the bill, only electric cars assembled in North America are eligible for a U. S. tax credit.

And this regulation has undoubtedly attracted the attention of automakers all over the world to Mexico, the most cost-effective country in North America.

At the beginning of February this year, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard revealed that at present, many brands are lining up to negotiate with Mexico. Among them, Volkswagen, Ford, BMW, Audi, General Motors, Nissan, Stellantis and other brands have begun to act.

For example, three years ago, the Ford plant in Mexico took off the world's first electric SUV Mach-E. Not only that, last October, Ford opened a new global technology and business center on the outskirts of Mexico City and invested $260 million in preparation for full electrification.

GM has been producing electric cars at its Ramos-Alispe plant since last year. And plans to build only electric cars in Mexico from 2024.

Stellantis also plans to invest billions of dollars in revamping its Saltillo plant in Coahuila to produce hybrid and electric cars.

BMW's world's first pure electric car factory is also likely to be at the previously mentioned San Luis Potosi plant in Mexico, which is expected to produce only electric cars from 2027.

There are also Volkswagen, Nissan and Continental Group, which have each pledged to make major investments totaling nearly $1.7 billion in Mexico.

Mexico's second trump card is its 1.7 million tons of lithium clay in Sonora, which ranks 10th in the world with lithium reserves worth $600 billion. It is a large country with proper lithium resources. As a result, it has attracted giants such as Foxconn, Ningde Times, LG Electronics and Magna International.

Among them, the Ningde era has considered building two plants in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, and Saltillo, Coavira, with plans to invest 5 billion US dollars exclusively for Tesla and Ford.

LG Electronics and Magna International jointly invested $100 million to build the first production base in North America in Ramos Alispe, Coahuila, to produce electric powertrain components for General Motors.

The last trump card is the new power of Mexican car-building that has been emerging in recent years. However, I always feel that this last trump card should be put in quotation marks.

The first is Zacua, which was born in 2017 and is the first electric car brand in Mexico. At present, Zacua has a small assembly plant in Puebla and has successfully developed two models, MX2 and MX3. The MX2, which can accommodate two passengers, has a top speed of 85km / h, a range of 160km / h, an eight-hour recharge time and a price of $30,000.

Another company, Elfi Motors, which specializes in mini electric cars, has also launched two two-seater models: the Jimmy KR and the Moto Taxi TA3. The former sells for $9500 and the latter for $8000. Moto Taxi TA3 is called Moto Taxi TA3 because it has been endorsed by the Mexican government and has been specially supplied by taxis off the coast of Mexico in the past two years.

Personally, I think the person with the most futuristic style is a start-up company called Ron Autom ó viles. They also launched two extremely gorgeous models, the R07 and the RXX.

The R07 has a lightweight body and a suspension system with 19 adjustment points. The RXX uses a carbon fiber chassis and is equipped with two electric motors. It is understood that Ron Autom ó viles has indeed attracted the attention of many people in North America. However, at present, Ron Autom ó viles is only customized, of which the R07 is 10, which has been fully booked.

For now, the biggest danger to Mexican car manufacturing in the future will be the Americans next door.

The National Bank of Spain, a world-renowned multi-purpose bank, has released a report in the past two years, listing the main factors restricting the development of Mexico's manufacturing industry in the future. the first is to rely heavily on its partnership with the United States. vulnerable to changes in the Free Trade Agreement.

For example, the main models that Mexico's major car companies have been producing are mainly for the American market, especially the high-engine and multi-functional SUV and commercial vehicles. And in the past two years, the proportion of large cars made in Mexico has become more and more obvious-at the end of the 20th century, 50% of Mexican models were small cars. Today it is only about 20%.

In particular, this dependency became more obvious after the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement in July 2020 replaced the 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico fully feels the special skills of Americans who are thick-skinned and shameless at the same time.

Because according to the newly established "US-Mexico-Canada agreement", by 2025, 75% of cars and some core parts must be produced in the country of origin in order to pass customs duty-free, otherwise the United States can impose tariffs in accordance with WTO rules.

And! And! The relevant regulations of the United States, with stricter interpretations and requirements, will force Mexico to import more important parts from the United States, making it difficult for Mexican-made vehicles to meet the duty-free threshold, thus weakening the global competitiveness of the Mexican automobile manufacturing industry.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance.

In January last year, Mexico finally teamed up with Canada, which is also squeezed by the United States, to urge the United States to redefine the duty-free conditions for car imports. A full year after the struggle, a five-member dispute settlement panel set up by the three countries announced the results of the arbitration: the United States violated the terms of the USMCA and Canada and Mexico won an initial victory.

However, who knows what new tricks Lao Wang will come up with in the future.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: autocarweekly (ID:autocarweekly)

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