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BYD is everywhere in Uruguay right now; on city streets, country roads, and parked outside supermarkets. What used to be a stronghold for gas-powered cars built by Ford, Fiat, and Toyota is now flooded with cheap Chinese EVs, according to Bloomberg.
And BYD is leading that pack. The country’s electric vehicle boom has gone from buzz to full-blown takeover, backed by lower taxes, high fuel costs, and a growing web of charging stations. All of this is happening in a country of just 3.5 million people.
Through October, EVs made up 25% of new car and SUV sales in Uruguay. That number has doubled from last year and smashes what’s being seen in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia, where adoption still lingers in the low single digits.
Uruguay got there fast by removing a 23% import tax and cutting passenger car duties. It didn’t hurt that gasoline is nearly $7.40 per gallon, pushing locals to seek out anything that doesn’t guzzle fuel. The data comes from Acau, the national auto trade group, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Chinese automakers dominate as BYD’s prices pull in the masses
China’s grip on Uruguay’s EV market is tight. About 90% of the 11,000 electric cars and SUVs sold this year came from Chinese brands, mostly BYD, JAC, and Omoda.
Rafael Rabioglio, head of Latin America research at BloombergNEF, called the arrival of low-cost Chinese EVs a “game changer.” He projected that battery electric and plug-in hybrid sales would cross 8% of new passenger car sales across Latin America in 2025, up from 2% in 2023, totaling more than 400,000 units. “If it wasn’t for the Chinese, I’m not sure we would have seen this transition happening recently in Latin America,” Rafael said.
The BYD Seagull, priced just under $20,000, is roughly in the same range as a standard four-door hatchback with a combustion engine. That price tag pulled in Maria Clara Sole, a 36-year-old commuter from Montevideo.
Maria drives about 60 kilometers a day between work and errands. She and her husband bought a BYD Yuan Pro for $31,000 after chatting with other BYD owners in the neighborhood. Charging at home instead of fueling up saves her around $400 every month. But they haven’t ditched gas completely.
They still use their old SUV for long road trips. “We aren’t ready to go fully electric with both cars,” Maria said. “There’s still some uncertainty—especially if I want to drive to Argentina or Brazil. That possibility is limited if it’s not a gasoline-powered car.”
Tesla cars sneak into Uruguay through private imports and local dealers
Uruguay’s rich aren’t sticking with gas either. Tesla, which doesn’t even have an official presence in the country, is showing up in Punta del Este, a coastal playground for the region’s wealthy.
Since 2020, local dealerships have sold 152 Teslas, while Argentina, with ten times the population, hasn’t cracked 40. Ramiro Duer, operations manager at AutoImport, said his dealership near Punta del Este sold 40 Teslas this year and plans to push that to 60 in 2025, despite competition from Chinese brands.
“We continue to bet on Tesla because the brand and vehicles continue to surprise day after day with their software updates and occasional vehicle restyling,” Ramiro said.
Other Teslas have entered Uruguay through a policy that lets citizens who’ve lived abroad for two years bring a car back duty-free. That’s how Martin Canabal, a 48-year-old engineer, imported his Model 3.
After living in San Francisco for nearly seven years, Martin and his wife drove their car from Alaska all the way to southern Argentina, and finally to their new home in Punta del Este in 2023. He now swaps maintenance tips with other Tesla drivers online and visits local shops that import spare parts and hire trained mechanics.
Nicolas Jodal also reportedly brought a Tesla into the mix. After selling his software firm to Globant, he picked up his second Model X through a local importer in 2023. Nicolas has BYD models at home too, but says Tesla’s tech still stands out.
“They are extremely cheap to operate,” Nicolas said. “I don’t think I manage to spend 500 pesos ($12) a month on electricity.” He called internal combustion engines “an outdated technology that has no future, at least for passenger transport vehicles.”
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