MEXICO, it seems, is an automotive backwater. The country’s
consumers are expected to buy barely 1.06m cars and light trucks
this year—down nearly 10% from the already weak 1.15m in 2005.
Put another way, this is barely one new vehicle for every 150
Mexican residents, compared to more than one for every 20
citizens in America.  So why did Nissan, the Japanese carmaker,
this week open a new $2 billion assembly complex in the city of
Aguascalientes? And why are manufacturers such as Mazda, Honda
and Audi racing to set up factories in Mexico, while General
Motors, which already has operations in the country, is set to
invest another $700m?  Mexico, it turns out, ranks eighth among
the world’s carmaking nations—and is likely to be seventh soon,
as Enrique Peña Nieto, the country’s president was quick to
point out when he dedicated the new Nissan plant (see picture,
with Carlos Ghosn, the firm’s chief executive, to the right).
What is more, Mexico is already number four in car exports,
behind Germany, South Korea