The Chinese platform Didi plans to bring 100,000 electric cars to Mexico between 2024 and 2030. The company’s goal is to offer its app-based transportation service through this type of vehicle.

According to Andrés Panamá, general director for Latin America, Africa and the Middle East at DiDi, this decision is due to what the company has observed in China, where 57% of the mileage traveled by its drivers is electrified.

The boost to the electrification of the vehicle fleet in China is due to the Chinese government’s investment in these technologies, to the dynamics of the automotive industry in that market, but above all to the profitability offered by this type of vehicle.

“One thing that is little known is that the main catalyst for this electrification in China has been the transportation industry, with companies like Didi, which has a fairly large position in the country,” he said.

According to the executive, the adoption of electric vehicles in the transportation platform not only has a positive impact on drivers’ pocketbooks, but can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 5 million tons.

While 9,278 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were sold in Mexico during all of 2023; so far in 2024, 19,096 of these vehicles have already been sold.

In contrast, nearly 2 million electric vehicles were sold in China in 2023 alone.

Didi will make an investment of US$50.3 million to bring these 100,000 electric cars, a figure that is more than three times the number of electric vehicles sold in the country in 2023, which was around 30,000 such cars. The goal is to build the largest fleet of these vehicles in Mexico and Latin America.