The story of Zacua started back in 2017 when the first ever Mexican electric car was assembled by women in a plant in Puebla.
“Sustainable Mobility” is Zacua 's motto. Zacua is the first electric Mexican car brand and it is already making its way and letting in women in a typically male-dominated industry.
“Zacua was founded on three basic principles: sustainable mobility alternatives; Mexico’s experience and unquestionable reputation in the car industry which we have used to create an entire new car brand project; gender equality, something women have strived for for years and that has gradually fructified,” comments Nazareth Black, CEO of Zacua Mexico.
Zacua’s plant is located in Puebla, in Central Mexico. Women work there to assemble the cars manually, no process is automated. The team of women accompanies the car from start to finish. They put together the board, power engine, harnesses, batteries and alarm system.
Women in Zacua work on the final adjustments of the instrument board and install the infotainment, touch screen and vehicle control unit (VCU), explains the brand on its official blog.
“When we started talking about car assembling, we always had women in mind for the job, but thought most applicants would be male. However, to our surprise, we realized during the recruitment process that there were many women applicants. New rules indicate that no specific gender should be assigned to any job profile. Women were not applying for traditional roles as receptionists, cleaners or secretaries, they were applying for assembly line jobs. We started working on gender equality and chose to give 50% of the jobs available to women. The assembly line is very important to us and we decided to hire more female personnel, which echoed the message that Mexico is working towards gender equality,” explains Ms. Nazareth Black.
The CEO mentions that the idea of Zacua emerged in the year 2000, when Mexico City was facing problems with traffic congestion and air pollution, while some cities in Europe were already talking about electric cars. “We realized then that the future was electric and the solution was to swap from conventional gasoline engine cars to electric cars, offering a sustainable mobility option. That is how Zacua was born, we wanted to create a Mexican brand of electric cars and with a social conscience, a project that would impact the community positively.”
Zacua is a náhualt word and it means Oropendola, which is an endemic bird species of the Mexican Southeast. “The bird sings beautifully and it is endemic to Mexico and Central America. Supposedly, it is said it was Emperor Moctezuma's favorite bird. Zacua is a Mexican project, with a Mexican soul, therefore we had to choose a name that represented this. Zacua is a word that encompasses our essence and gives us the opportunity to share a bit of our history when we talk to people from abroad or simply people who did not know this,” says Ms. Black.
Zacua commercializes two models: MX2 and MX3. Both cars are fully equipped and cost the same, the only difference is their exterior design. The brand is open to make adjustments to the design to meet client needs. The design was commissioned to the French company Chatenet.
On the other hand, Zacua is currently working on a new generation of electric cars. In the short term, they envision a small, high-performance commercial vehicle for delivery and a micromobility vehicle.
It is important to mention that for now, the Zacua sales experience is 100% digital. Everything is done through their internet site, text messaging, call center and social media. However, the plan is to inaugurate a showroom in late 2022, so people can have a look at the cars, personalize their vehicle and get the perfect Zacua for them.
“The assembly line is very important to us and we decided to hire more female personnel, which echoed the message that Mexico is working towards gender equality.” Nazareth Black, CEO of Zacua Mexico.
Puebla, the car industry state in Mexico
The Zacua plant is located in the Industrial Park Puebla 2000 and was inaugurated in 2018.
Ms. Nazareth Black says they chose Puebla because it is the most important hub for car manufacturers in Mexico. “Puebla is renowned for being a hub for the car industry and therefore there are plenty of suppliers available. It was also obvious to us that the plant had to be there because our main target market was going to be Mexico City, considering its existing traffic and pollution issues, and Puebla is very close.”
Puebla occupies the second place nationally for car manufacturing and vehicle exports. The state car production from January to July 2022 totalled 273,843 vehicles, while exports accounted for 247,304 vehicles, according to the National Car Industry Records Agency, which is part of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
Likewise, the Administrative Record of the Light Vehicle Automotive Industry indicates that sales from assembly plants in Puebla accounted for 62,164 vehicles, which puts Puebla on third place for car sales nationally.
The Zacua plant is different from an average car manufacturing plant both in size and production methodology. Mexico is an emerging market for electric cars and therefore the production is on a small scale.
The Zacua plant is not automated, cars are assembled manually, people work with their own hands and there is opportunity for a lot of team building. Thirty people have assembled 50 pre-ordered vehicles so far and are currently working on assembling another 50. “This is extraordinary because each car is made with love and excitement, something an automated process could never do,” highlights the CEO.
Ms. Black mentions that the transmission and harnesses are made in-house, but they also work with local suppliers for other brand requirements. “We are developing a local supplier network and pushing hard to create a regional ecosystem to get what we need to manufacture our cars, which means developing local suppliers and us manufacturing part of the car components. We manufacture the transmission and the harnesses and are open to collaborate with other industries in the sector to reach our goal.”
Create your own car brand in six months!
Zacua is part of Motores Limpios, a business cluster that provides sustainable mobility solutions, advisory and consulting services, business development in Mexico and car assembly lines.
Motores Limpios created a personalized car brand in six months and without huge investments. “We can provide a generic platform to assemble the car or we can develop the car design. The project will not take 30 years or cost 1,000 million dollars. We have plans to collaborate with people who wish to develop their own car brand; we would serve as a platform and technology provider, sharing our know-how to set up the plant, a sort of franchise model. This is what is next for us, we can definitely do it because we have no bureaucracy in our organization and we can move fast,” reveals Nazareth Black.
The CEO of Zacua Mexico says they are currently in talks with five countries in which they are planning to open their first car franchises. The idea is to set up electric car assembly plants that can work for other brands in prototype creation, scanning and reverse engineering, among other services.
She also indicates that there is a chance of collaboration with a Chinese company that is interested in bringing their assembly plant to Mexico. “There is literally a landslide of car companies that are coming to set up in our country. There are several car brands coming and we are going to work with them. We are the only existing OEM in Mexico. We make cars, electric cars, and we can help them set up. This is the reason why we created an engineering department, to help them with prototypes, engineering and assembly, so they can come to Mexico easily and with certainty.”
The CEO believes Mexico can definitely turn into a world player, it has the experience and the reputation. “Mexico is known globally for being an amazing country to do business, a country where the labor is good, loyal, hard-working and cheap. We are a country that manufactures and assembles cars, but we can also design technology for the car industry, create brands and even manufacture cars from scratch.”
