Germán Toro Ghio, www.germantoroghio.com, Karlstad, Sweden, August 6, 2025
I. The City as Contradiction
In the ancient Greek, the word antilogía meant to speak against oneself, to hold two opposing truths simultaneously without resolution—and perhaps no place on earth has mastered this philosophical impossibility with greater artistic precision than Mexico City, where contradiction is not a flaw to be corrected but the very DNA of urban existence, the fundamental grammar through which twenty-one million souls have learned to conjugate survival with beauty, despair with hope, progress with memory, in the thin air of a valley that should never have supported such magnificent excess.
II. La Bola: The Game of the Metropolis
VEMO, born from the vision of Roberto Rochas and Germán Lozano, cradles La Bola like an ancient whisper of the Aztec gods—a game without rules, wild and untamed, mirroring the swirling chaos of the city. Yet in its rolling dance, there is a secret order, a cosmic rhythm. And VEMO, perhaps guided by the spirit of a forgotten deity, has emerged victorious from the battle. Slowly, tenderly, like a lover’s hand smoothing the furrows of the earth, it has transformed the valley—until the smog parted, and the sun, golden and triumphant, bathed the sky in light..
III. The Ranchera of Asphalt and Rain
Here begins the story of a revolution written in volts rather than bullets, in silence rather than noise, in the space between what Mexico City has always been and what it must become to survive its magnificent excess at 7,350 feet above the sea.Thinking about what Vemo leadership has achieved, it's clear it wasn't an easy task. There exists a song—not one song but a thousand rancheras that bleed from every cantina and taxi radio—that speaks of Mexico City as both beloved mother and cruel mistress, that celebrates this capital as the place where provincial hearts come to break magnificently, where every chilango learns to love and curse the same polluted air with equal passion. These musical laments understand what no urban planning manual could ever capture: that Mexico City seduces with the promise of transformation while demanding the sacrifice of innocence, that it offers the intoxication of infinite possibility while extracting payment in tears, sweat, and shortened breath. The rancheras sing of neighbourhoods as sacred geography—Coyoacán, Xochimilco, la Roma, el Centro—each barrio a verse in the endless ballad of metropolitan survival, each street corner a stage where the drama of Mexican urban life unfolds in three-quarter time.
In the beginning was the lake, and the lake was Texcoco, and upon its waters the Mexica built their impossible city of floating gardens and causeways, never imagining that five centuries later, twenty-one million souls would breathe the same thin air in a valley transformed into the most densely populated crucible of human ambition in the Americas—a megacity that exists as both triumph and catastrophe, as both the fulfillment and the betrayal of every utopian dream ever dreamed in the Spanish language.
Here, suspended at 2,240 meters above the distant sea, in this aerial cathedral of concrete and desire where oxygen itself becomes a precious commodity, Mexico City writes itself daily as the most audacious urban poem ever attempted—a text written in the blood of Tenochtitlan, revised by Spanish conquistadors, edited by French interventionists, annotated by revolutionaries, and now being rewritten once again by the electric hum of a future that dares to imagine itself breathing clean air in the valley of perpetual smog.
Carlos Fuentes understood this city as the great palimpsest of Mexican civilization, where every street corner becomes an archaeological site and every traffic jam a meditation on the weight of history. From the poetic space above—from the perspective that only literature and love can provide—one perceives the magnificent paradox that defines this impossible metropolis: it is simultaneously the most polluted and the most culturally vital city in Latin America, a place where the density of vehicles matches the density of dreams, where six million cars circle like mechanical prayers around the ruins of an Aztec empire that refused to die.
In Mexico, Pablo Neruda was immersed in vibrant paleta: ochre from lakebeds, emerald jacarandas, and Frida Kahlo's cobalt blue house echoed throughout the city's artful walls. Sudden rains revive the ancient Texcoco lake, transforming dust into light. Like Antonio Latapi, who viewed colour as emotional architecture and resurrected Frida's museum through chromatic alchemy, the city reveals water's daily magic on its urban palette.
The gray concrete becomes mirror-silver, the yellow of a thousand taxis reflects like scattered coins on wet pavement, the brown earth releases its ancient perfume of copal and time, and the entire city transforms into what Latapi knew in his bones: that color is Mexico's most honest language, speaking truths that words cannot reach, painting reality until it becomes more real than reality itself, each raindrop carrying within it the memory of mountains and the promise of renewed chromatic intensity bleeding back into a world temporarily cleansed of its mechanical fever. He tasted the crimson of chiles that burn the tongue while cleansing the spirit, felt the golden fire of tequila that transforms sorrow into song, witnessed the amber sunsets that paint the smog itself into temporary beauty, and understood that Mexico City exists in a state of perpetual aesthetic emergency, where survival itself becomes an art form.
But it was in those yellow Volkswagen Beetles—those immortal vochos that conquered the capital with their cheerful resilience—that the city found its most perfect metaphor. For decades, these air-cooled chariots of democracy carried secretaries and millionaires, philosophers and pickpockets, lovers rushing to assignations and workers returning from sixteen-hour days, all united in the democracy of traffic jams that dissolved class distinctions in the universal solvent of exhaust fumes. The yellow taxi became Mexico City's moving emblem: humble yet indestructible, European in origin yet utterly Mexican in spirit, a machine that somehow thrived in conditions that would kill more sophisticated technologies. Like bright submarines navigating through the concrete seas of the capital, these rounded vessels of hope bobbed through impossible traffic currents, carrying their human cargo through the urban depths with the same joyful determination that once inspired Liverpool dreams—except here, in the rarified atmosphere of the high plateau, they moved not through psychedelic waters but through the thick amber atmosphere of perpetual smog, each one a small yellow promise that somewhere, somehow, there existed a magical mystery tour through the labyrinth of metropolitan impossibility.
Yet this mechanical symphony—six million vehicles creating the most complex urban orchestra ever assembled—has transformed the valley into an amphitheatre of environmental catastrophe. The same mountains that once sheltered Aztec gods now trap industrial emissions in a perpetual grey embrace, creating an atmosphere so thick with particulate matter that breathing itself becomes a political act. Here, in this vertical city where pre-Hispanic pyramids serve as platforms for radio antennas, where the cathedral built from Teotihuacan stones sinks slowly into the drained lakebed, where vendors sell tacos al pastor beneath billboards advertising German luxury cars, the very air bears witness to five centuries of colonial extraction, industrial ambition, and demographic explosion.
The density here overwhelms all categories: twenty-one million people compressed into a space that geology never intended to support such weight, creating a human concentration so intense that it generates its weather patterns, its own magnetic fields, its own gravitational pull that draws migrants from every corner of the Republic like iron filings to a magnet. This is density as cosmic force, density as historical destiny, density as the inevitable result of a civilization that chose to build its capital not where nature suggested, but where the gods demanded—in the center of a high valley surrounded by volcanoes, in the heart of seismic instability, in the place where earth and sky meet in perpetual negotiation.
And now, in this third decade of the twenty-first century, as the yellow vochos surrender their streets to newer, quieter machines, as the mechanical poetry of internal combustion gives way to the silent verses of electric motors, Mexico City confronts its most profound transformation since the Spanish conquest. While some—blinded by willful ignorance or economists drunk on short-term interests—persist in their stubborn refusal to acknowledge climate change as a scientific fact, others fight with desperate clarity to do things the right way, to honour the children who must inherit this valley of contradictions. The electric vehicle revolution arrives not as technological progress but as historical necessity, not as foreign imposition but as indigenous adaptation—the same genius for survival that allowed the Mexica to build floating gardens now manifesting as the determination to build a future where twenty-one million people can breathe without choosing between cultural vitality and biological survival.
From the poetic space above, from the aerial perspective that encompasses both Teotihuacan's pyramids and Tesla's factories, one perceives that Mexico City's electric future emerges from the same source as its mythological past: the refusal to accept that paradise and apocalypse cannot coexist in the exact geographical coordinates. This is the Mexico of eternal contradictions, where tequila and pollution, mariachi and traffic jams, ancient wisdom and modern folly dance together in the thin air of the highest capital in North America. This city now dares to imagine itself electric, clean, and still magnificently, impossibly Mexican.
V. The Age of Engines and Their Exhaust
Yes, almost crazy for decades, Mexico City roared like an open furnace. Eight million vehicles raged daily through its veins, exhaling a grey fugue that smothered volcanoes and veiled sunsets. Among them buzzed the yellow Volkswagen Beetle—the vocho—that democratic chariot of the capital.
“The vocho was the city’s yellow submarine, carrying secretaries and poets through jams so eternal they became geography.” Germán & Co
V. The World Shakes; The Valley Whispers
Now, as the third decade of the century unfurls like a frayed banner, the world beyond quivers:
Wars redraw maps in Europe and the Middle East.
Tariff battles convulse trade, casting Mexico as both pawn and queen.
Inflation storms freeze venture capital.
Nuclear shadows creep across humanity’s collective dreamscape.
Yet, even in this precarious balance, optimism thrives—here, in a valley humming with energy, not destruction.
“Latin America cannot copy-paste European or U.S. models. We are designing electrification for our reality: inclusion, cost-efficiency, and resilience.” “Every charging point is an act of sovereignty. It’s about taking control of our energy destiny.” Germán Losada (Co-Founder & COO)
VI. VEMO: Silent Architect of a Possible Future
Founded in 2021 by Roberto Rocha and Germán Losada, VEMO is less a start-up than an ecosystem stitched together by audacity: fleets, finance, infrastructure—a nervous system for a city gasping toward tomorrow.
3,000 EVs in operation
600+ chargers, goal: 1,000 by year-end
10,813 tons CO₂ avoided
50,000 monthly charging sessions
$63.7M Series C + MXN 1.3B domestic financing
Named LinkedIn Top Startup in 2024
Your have the best electric-mobility model I’ve ever seen—or you’re crazy.” – Roberto Rocha (Co-Founder & CEO)
VII. Impulsean colour: Democratizing Volts
Electrification without inclusion is an illusion. Enter Impulso, VEMO’s lease-to-own program for Uber and Didi drivers—the proletariat of the gig economy.
“We leased over 500 EVs in the first phase because transformation without inclusion is just a marketing campaign.” – Nicolás Estrada
VIII. Alliances Across the Storm
BYD, BMW, Uber, GAC, Zeekr—partnerships anchoring VEMO’s ark in a deluge of tariff wars and tech rivalries.
IX. Mexico as Forge or Footnote?
Tesla builds its gigafactory in Nuevo León; lithium deserts in Sonora whisper sovereignty. Mexico projects 300,000 EVs annually by 2026.
X. The City as Aesthetic Emergency
Return to the streets: murals blooming like wounds, jacarandas scattering amethyst confetti, rain scripting silver psalms on asphalt.
As Latapi once mixed pigments against oblivion, so VEMO mixes electrons against entropy.
XI. Epilogue: Volt Psalms in an Age of Ash
When the last vocho sleeps under museum glass, and jacarandas ignite Reforma with violet fire, someone will ask: How did it begin?
Answer: It began when a city of contradictions, in a world flirting with catastrophe, chose silence over roar and turned survival into an electric song.
Mexico EV Market Snapshot (2024):
* Electrified Vehicles: 69,713 (~31,000 EVs)
* VEMO EV Fleet: 3,000
* Charging Stations: 600+ (Target: 1,000)
* CO₂ Emissions Avoided: 10,813 tons
* Funding: $63.7M + MXN 1.3B
* Recognition: LinkedIn Top Startups 2024
Leadership's role in success.
Roberto Rocha, the CEO and co-founder of VEMO, drives the company’s strategy and fundraising efforts. Previously, he managed Latin-American deals for Temasek and built a strong investment banking career at UBS, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley. With a background in structured finance, he has been instrumental in developing VEMO’s billion-peso leasing platform. He often highlights partnerships with cities and platform operators in his public appearances to promote scaling zero-emission mobility.
Germán Lozada, co-founder and COO of VEMO, chairs the board and manages daily operations. Before founding VEMO in 2021, he spent ten years investing in clean-energy infrastructure at Riverstone and served on renewables boards, including Vista Energy. Lozada, an economist from the University of San Andrés, is recognized within VEMO for advocating ambitious fleet-electrification goals and transparent ESG reporting.
Nicolás Estrada was VEMO's first in-house hire, rising from business-development lead to CFO. Leveraging his background in investment banking and consulting, he structured the MX $1.3 billion debt package that supports VEMO's driver-leasing operations and has expressed interest in securitizations and green bonds. Estrada is a frequent speaker on regional expansion and inclusive financing for ride-hail drivers.
About the Author
Germán Toro Ghio occupies a pivotal role at the intersection of energy transition and geopolitical strategy, bringing over thirty years of executive leadership and analytical expertise to some of the most intricate global challenges. As Chief Executive Officer of Germán & Co., he develops strategic narratives that influence policy discourse in governmental capitals and corporate boardrooms internationally.
His professional foundation is extensive, encompassing more than a decade with the United Nations Development Programme, followed by two critical years serving as Executive Secretary of the Forum of Culture Ministers for Latin America and the Caribbean. These experiences have cultivated his unique capacity to navigate cultural complexities within geopolitical contexts.
In the energy sector, Toro Ghio has employed communications as a strategic tool throughout two decades of leadership. His six-year tenure directing communications at Union Fenosa preceded a transformative fourteen-year period at AES Dominicana, where he advanced to the position of Vice President of Communications and contributed to establishing the company as a regional benchmark. His expertise regarding the nexus of energy and geopolitics has been recognised by EnergyCentral.com, which featured him in its esteemed Power Perspectives™ Interview Series and is also a member of the exclusive 100k VIP Club of the site.
Beyond his corporate roles, Toro Ghio has acted as a trusted advisor to the U.S. Department of State and the Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos, while also providing strategic guidance to several Latin American presidents on matters of energy policy and cultural diplomacy. His analytical acumen has proven consistently accurate, with his forecasts concerning energy market dynamics and geopolitical shifts demonstrating the strategic foresight that renders him a highly regarded authority within global energy forums.
Whether engaging with energy ministers or corporate leaders, Toro Ghio excels in distilling complexity into clarity, offering insights that not only inform but also shape the decisions influencing the future of energy.