Mobility, Automotive Companies in Time100 Most Influential List
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Mobility, Automotive Companies in Time100 Most Influential List

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Alejandro Enríquez By Alejandro Enríquez | Journalist and Industry Analyst - Thu, 05/13/2021 - 11:54

Three mobility-related companies and four automakers ranked in Time100 Most Influential companies in 2021. Learn more about how these companies are influencing their respective segments.

Rad Power Bikes | Category: Pioneers

Rad Power Bikes describes itself as "North America's largest electric bike brand, we are actively changing the way people and goods move." The company manufactures and sells electric bicycles "built for everything and priced for everyone." According to Time Magazine, the company sold 297 percent more bikes in April 2020 than in April 2019. Rad Power Bikes’ business model operates mainly through e-commerce and offers a quiver of practical options. It announced a US$150 million funding to reach 75 percent of US customers and double its staff in 2021. Although the company has no direct operations in Mexico, it allows local investors to build a rental fleet business.

DiDi Chuxing | Category: Disruptors

DiDi has become one of the most comprehensive mobility companies in the world. Primarily known as a ride-hailing app, the company expanded into food delivery and mobility-as-a-service, among other promising markets. It recently allied with Volvo to further develop autonomous vehicles for ride-hailing applications. According to Time Magazine, DiDi operates in 10 foreign markets and recently began offering mobile payments for clients in Latin America.

During Mexico Automotive Summit, Juan Andrés Panama, CEO of DiDi Mexico, addressed the future of mobility. “We have significant mobility data that we can aggregate and share with governments to help them make mobility decisions. Clients are using our services as a way to connect with public transport and not always a replacement. About 8 percent of our trips in Mexico City have a connection with a means of public transportation," said Panama.

Lime | Category: Disruptors

Mobility-focused company Lime stared as a bike-share service but it became popular thanks to its dockless electric scooters. Time describes it as a "micro-mobility company." In the near future, Lime will invest US$50 million in upgrading its fleet while expanding to other 50 cities around the world.

The company now operates in 20 countries but announced its withdrawal from the Mexican market in July 2019 mostly due to lack of legal certainty, as media reported at the time. According to the local office the company had 11,000 scooters in the city performing 20,000 trips a day. Lime had absorbed Uber's bike-sharing service JUMP, which the company decided to lay off in Mexico, Chile and Brazil due to unit theft.

BYD Co. Ltd | Category: Innovators

BYD is backed by Warren Buffet and offers one electric luxury sedan and one hybrid vehicle for the Chinese market. The company also manufactures electric buses in the US and Europe and soon in Japan. Over the past 12 months the company's stock grew by more than 300 percent.

Volkswagen | Category: Leaders

One of two traditional car makers in the list. Volkswagen AG managed to navigate the chip shortage storm. Volkswagen brands: Audi, Porsche and Seat, among others, are ready to embrace a fully electric future. According to Time, Volkswagen has assigned US$54 billion for electric projects over the next five years, including ambitious plans to build six battery factories. In 2020, the group sold 231,600 electric vehicles, tripling its 2019 sales in the segment. The company expects to sell 1 million EVs in 2021. In Mexico, although the Volkswagen brand is the country’s third best-seller, only Audi offers a fully electric model: the eTron.

General Motors | Category: Titans

Mary Barra, CEO of GM, is at the head of an ambitious corporate transformation to propel the company to the future of the automotive industry. "GM is playing serious catchup in the EV game, and success is far from certain for the legacy carmaker that sold fewer than 21,000 EVs in the US last year," writes Time Magazine. The group has announced ambitious investments at their different facilities, Mexico included, to pave the way for EV manufacturing in North America. Time Magazine included a full interview with Barra. "We have to tell our story better and put a few more points on the board," she said when referring at competing with disruptors such as Tesla or traditional leaders such as Volkswagen.

Tesla Inc. | Category: Disruptors

Tesla is the highest valued car company in the world. It is now part of the S&P Index and, although sales remain modest compared to other automakers, its core business includes a wide portfolio of EVs. Additional business lines also include products for the renewable electric energy sector such as Powerwall, Powerpack and Solar Roof. In Mexico, Tesla continues to expand is charging points, superchargers and showrooms, with the latest to open in Merida, Yucatan.

Photo by:   Time

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