Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, unveiled Olinia, the nation’s first homegrown electric vehicle. The new EV is set to go on...
  • FoundFootFootage78@lemmy.mlEnglish
    6·
    8 hours ago

    I’ve been anti-car my entire life. But as time has gone on I’ve started to see the reasoning behind the pro-car people. Having a space to yourself is nice. I’ve been thinking about what it would take to make cars less bad for society.

    Those factors are:

    1. Resolving the traffic issue and the impact the traffic issue has on housing supply.
    2. The microplastics from tires.
    3. The cost of vehicles.

    Obviously this would resolve the cost issue. A $9,000 EV is around the level of a very expensive e-bike. The battery being half the size of the BYD Atto 1 Essential (an already smaller than average) is probably a step in the right direction for microplastics too.

    I’m hopeful for the future.

  • ms.lane@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    9 hours ago

    I wonder if Mexico could start exporting them to Australia/NZ/Indonesia? We’re only just over the pacific.

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      1 hour ago

      it doesn’t have to, it’s using the same influencer armies on social media that it uses to sway elections in favor of fascists to denigrate olinia’s appearance/capabilities to convince people not to consider it in the first place. if the current trends hold, olinia will just be another footnote in mexican automotive history.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      19·
      19 hours ago

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Industrial_Ramirez

      Mexico has been making automobiles since the 1960’s and used to having a booming auto manufacturing sector of their economy, including many foreign automakers having factories there. Ford was building EVs there 10 years ago.

      This EV is a very cool development, but Mexico and South America in general already has a history with converting older vehicles to EV standards since most of the country has older vehicles. I am having trouble finding the article from a few years ago, but there was a whole cottage industry dedicated to converting classic cars to EVs down there.

      Finally, we’ve been exporting labor to Mexico for decades to reduce labor costs, most of it in manufacturing. To act like they don’t have such industries already flies in the face of the history of American and Mexican industry, and how they’re intertwined.