Mexico has everything it needs to step on the gas in the race for electromobility and meet the goal of reducing polluting emissions, said Michael Ren, general manager of Yutong Mexico, the leading global supplier of buses and coaches.
“We must absorb China’s successful experience around the world, for example, opening the doors to electric units with lower tariffs, so that users pay less. They can also offer government subsidies to facilitate the distribution of ecological units and promote the electrification process, or have the government develop the necessary infrastructure for this technology,” he recommended.
In line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, Mexico voluntarily committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and compounds by 35% by the end of the current administration.
“I have a lot of confidence in Mexico, almost 100%, that it will meet its commitment in 2030, because it is already carrying out the renewal of public transport through electromobility,” said Michael Ren.
Since its arrival in the country in 2018, Yutong has sold more than a thousand electric, hybrid, gas and diesel buses, of which 428 are part of the Trolleybus network in Mexico City, with a 97% share in this sector and whose power supply system, with a dual power battery source plus the line network, solves the need to change to ecological trips in the old town of the capital and marked a milestone in the promotion of this type of vehicle on a global scale.
The company placed 61 more buses for the first 100% electric Metrobús line, as well as another 171 diesel units, of which 121 are for high mountains in Mexico City.
In a meeting with the Latin American press, Michael Ren confirmed that the automaker is considering installing a plant to assemble buses in national territory.
“Yutong always carries out a feasibility study of the investment and the return, because we do not want to generate illusions of investment, since then the plant cannot maintain normal operations, lacking continuous orders and products suitable for the market,” he said.
“We are already concluding the study and we believe that in 2025 we will be able to have this strategic decision to invest in an assembly plant in Mexico, with the correct form and model,” he added.
Yutong City
EL UNIVERSAL toured part of the Yutong industrial complex to learn about the production of buses that circulate in eight Mexican cities and dozens of nations distributed in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Yutong was born 61 years ago and developed its first completely electric bus in 1999, thinking about sustainable urban means of transport and the future of traffic in cities.
The group has four complete vehicle manufacturing bases, all of which are located in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, China, where the New Energy Technology Research and Development Center and the Brand Experience Center are located.
Yutong City covers an area of approximately 1.3 million square meters, where there are engineering fields that simulate crashes and test the dynamics of the units, as well as the protection system that the batteries have against cold temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius, fires that spread rapidly at 1,300 degrees and floods of more than one meter under water.
The complex has laboratories with international certifications focused on improving and evaluating the performance of buses, safety and technological innovation, as well as offices, residential buildings and even a 30-story hotel.
The company says it allocates more than 5% of its annual operating income to research into technologies based on 5G mobile networks, artificial intelligence, big data, industrial internet, charging infrastructure and intelligent transportation, using alternative energies such as lithium and hydrogen. Yutong sells 7,800 buses and coaches each year, and has placed nearly 190,000 so far.
Source: eluniversal
