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- Hacker News
- This is all populist BS that will lead nowhere. The current government is the most incompetent and corrupt ever. And we had a really low bar already.by 725686
- I think they're doing alright. Populism seems to be working for her approval ratings since she's one of Latin America's most popular leaders:
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/07/16/mexicans-...
https://www.as-coa.org/articles/approval-tracker-mexicos-pre...
If lifting 8.3 million Mexican people out of poverty is "populism" then maybe we need more of that.
And I don't think the corruption claim is warranted. Her "Abrazos, no balazos" ("hugs, not guns") approach to dealing with gangs is taken as evidence of her being in cahoots with them but the data shows that it's clearly working. Homicides have dropped by almost half from a year ago! And other crimes have followed the same trajectory.
https://www.gob.mx/sspc/prensa/estrategia-nacional-de-seguri...
by culi - The current government of Mexico sells itself as a left leaning party. But it has been destroying or capturing every institution we had built to support our democracy, the separation of powers and the rule of law. From the judicial branch, the electoral institute, the transparency institute and many more.
- How much is this car merely a rabble of Chinese parts made to look like an indigenous Mexican car? I see this as a Chinese ploy to work around the American import tariffs by praying on Mexican national pride for a so-called "national car industry."
If this ploy works you'll see larger versions of this car hitting the roads which look suspiciously like Chinese BYD and SAIC EVs. All these will of course be exported North of the Border, courtesy of NAFTA.
I hope the government stops this attempt dead in its tracks before it starts to hurt our car industry.
by hn_submit - Canada and Mexico are both allowing Chinese EVs in. US automaker export TAM will only decrease over time, and eventually, they will be boutique automakers serving only the US market. BYD intends to be the world's largest automaker in five years, and China currently has the capacity to produce ~25M EVs per year (~25% of global annual light vehicle sales, as of this comment). The US built ~1M EVs last year, for comparison.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/10/china-byd-c...
> I hope the government stops this attempt dead in its tracks before it starts to hurt our car industry.
There is literally nothing the US gov can do to stop this. On the contrary, their actions have accelerated this. Masterful gambit.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/seekin...
https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/electric-vehicl...
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-07-15/china-... | https://archive.today/CXhGr
The US killed its own auto industry by shielding it from Chinese competition and rolling back EV incentive policy, to protect its profits of large combustion SUVs and trucks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/magazine/electric-cars-am... | https://archive.today/sENe1
> “We’ve reached a genuinely existential moment,” Ezell told me. In a best-case scenario, Detroit manages to meet it by crafting a viable, long-term E.V. strategy while also servicing the still dependably lucrative existing market for ICE trucks. In the worst, it retreats onto what the economist Susan Helper calls a “shrinking island of ICE,” churning out outlandishly large trucks and not much else. At which point, the obsolescence of the mighty U.S. automobile industry — a sector once inextricably associated with American know-how and economic might — would be all but guaranteed. As Ford’s chief executive, Jim Farley, recently acknowledged in a statement that could apply to any member of the Big Three, “If we don’t put our chips on the right number and the right color, Ford could maybe not exist.”
by toomuchtodo - The American car industry has had over 50 years since the oil embargo to get its act together. How much more time do you want?
America has no leverage at this time ban Mexico/China if you want only Americans will be hurt in the crossfire.
by Danox - Detroit doesn't change its ways until it's been hit in the balls with a baseball bat once or twice. The baseball bat is smaller, cheaper, more efficient cars in the 70s and smaller, cheaper EVs today.by rickydroll
- > How much is this car merely a rabble of Chinese parts made to look like an indigenous Mexican car? I see this as a Chinese ploy to work around the American import tariffs by praying on Mexican national pride for a so-called "national car industry."
Isn't a lot of the Mexican car industry foreign brands building their cars in Mexico with parts from wherever they come from? Lots of parts would be sourced in Mexico, but certainly not everything.
If you can get a high volume car assembled in your country, that's a win. Some, but not all of the parts production will move towards where assembly happens, because it simplifies logistics. That's a win too.
Would it be a bigger win for everything to be designed and made in your country? Yeah, probably, but it's not likely to happen, so take what you can get?
by toast0 - This is going to go absolutely nowhere. There's really no market for these and the govt. would rather focus on something flashy like a new car instead of infrastructure or anything that could threaten Pemex (god forbid...)by blovescoffee
- Famously, she's focused a lot of her infrastructure work on expansion of rail. Including the 5.6 trillion peso Plan México and 3,000 new km of passenger train lines. She's also remodeling the Mexico City airport, modernizing and repairing 4,000 km of roads, and pushed the National Hospital Infrastructure Plan that will fund massive expansions of three major hospital systems. Also half of the infrastructure budget is allocated to energy infrastructure. Specifically to fund her massive clean energy transition. 70% of new energy is to come from renewables.
What other infrastructure do you have in mind?
by culi - The article talks a lot about how China makes most of the electric cars and Mexico wants to "capture a piece of the action", but the Olinia has substantial amounts of its engineering and parts from China [1]. And instead of learning from a nice actual roadgoing car, they based it on a golf cart-like mini vehicle from a little-known Chinese motorcycle manufacturer.
[1] https://elceo.com/investigaciones-especiales/olinia-el-vincu...
by porphyra - That’s how industries start - integrating, then copying, then designing their own.by rbanffy
- This is much like the Tata Nano, the one-lakh car.[1] Although very cheap, it did not sell.by Animats
- The Olina isn't targeting the same market as the Nano.
The Nano tried to be a household car but failed because a 6 person household (2 parents, 2 grandparents, 2 kids) would also need trunk space.
On the other hand, the Olina is trying to replace mototaxis and three-wheelers.
by alephnerd - Based on Olina's marketing [0], they are primarily targeting to replace auto rickshaws/three-wheelers.
It isn't meant to be a direct competitor of a Nissan Versa, Chevrolet Aveo, Nissan Frontier, or a Kia K3.
A better approach would have been adopting Malaysia's strategy of working on building a domestic battery platform [1], as the actual value add of an EV platform comes from the battery itself.
Also, the Olina Uno is very feature light (no AC, no air bags, little to no trunk space) despite costing around $8600 [2] despite Chinese, Indian [3], and Vietnamese [4] EV cars providing those features out of the box at the $7,000-9,000 pricepoint.
[0] - https://www.olinia.auto/
[1] - https://asia.nikkei.com/business/automobiles/electric-vehicl...
[2] - https://insideevs.com/news/798256/mexico-olinia-uno-ev-cheap...
[3] - https://asia.nikkei.com/business/automobiles/electric-vehicl...
[4] - https://asia.nikkei.com/business/automobiles/electric-vehicl...
by alephnerd - Mexico most cabs there just have windows rolled down or even no windows at all aside from the windshield.
In Mazatlan for example the most common taxi is called a pulmonia and only has a windshield and top cover but is gaz powered. This seems like a slightly longer version of the 4 seater pulomnia. I could totally see this being a great upgrade for a taxi driver there.
by xutopia