The Politics of Technological Choice in the EV Transition: Comparing Brazil and Mexico

This article examines variation in green industrial policies for electrified vehicles (EVs) in Brazil and Mexico. Both are middle-income democracies with significant automotive sectors, yet they have adopted distinct technological pathways under similar global decarbonization pressures. We argue that technological choices are mediated by sectoral developmental alliances whose preferences are primarily structured by the politics of national growth models. Using a descriptive comparative analysis, we show that Brazil’s commodity-driven model and large domestic market have supported an alliance between automakers and biofuel producers, leading to the prioritization of ethanol-compatible hybrid vehicles. By contrast, Mexico’s export-led integration into North American value chains has reinforced alliances aligned with battery electric vehicles (BEVs), consistent with the inherent pressures of its export-led growth model and regulatory dynamics. The comparison advances a plausible hypothesis: In peripheral economies, green technological pathways are politically negotiated outcomes shaped by the politics of developmental alliances, rather than purely efficiency-driven responses to global climate imperatives.