This article first appeared on the BNEF mobile app and the Bloomberg Terminal.
- Sales doubling annually though volumes are small
- Brazil makes up over half of the nascent EV market
Electric vehicles sales are rising in Latin America, with luxury car buyers driving the uptick. The region registered nearly 25,000 EVs sold in 2021, more than doubling the 2020 level. While sales remain a sliver of those in Europe, the market is growing briskly.
From Mexico to Chile, EVs were 0.7% of total car sales in 2021, with rates varying by country. Brazil saw the most units sold, with 13,000, and Costa Rica led on a percentage basis with 2.7% of all cars sold with a plug. Mexico is the only LATAM country that manufactures EVs, which it also targets exports to the U.S.
BNEF anticipates the region’s two largest markets, Brazil and Mexico, will see EV sales rise to 2%-4% by 2025. By comparison, EVs were 20%, 15%, and 4.5% of sales in Europe, China and the U.S. in 2021, respectively.
Plug-in hybrid electrics accounted for two thirds of EVs sold in LATAM in 2021, possibly reflecting buyer “range anxiety” as local public charging is limited. LATAM nations offer few policies to support EV adoption.
For more detail on these findings, an abridged version of the 2022 Energy Transition Investment Trends Report can be downloaded from this page. BNEF subscribers can find the full report on the client website and on the Bloomberg Terminal.