Costa Rica’s EV Market in 2024: A Review for the Leader of the Americas
Last Updated on: 6th May 2025, 04:16 pm
Recently, we published an article from Mario Duran about Costa Rica’s continued leadership in the region. Thanks to Mario’s work, we also have a detailed report on Costa Rica’s EV sales by model, so we decided to make an article specifically about this.
Costa Rica’s BEV market rose rapidly in 2024, growing nearly 100% compared to 2023 and reaching over 11,000 units (in a total market of ~75,000 units). Another way of looking at this is that more BEVs were sold in 2024 than in all years prior. Thanks to this, Costa Rica’s market share rose to 15.4% that year.
Overview: Sales per Model in 2024
Costa Rica’s BEV adoption is fueled by access to affordable electric vehicles, many times at similar cost to their gasoline counterparts. Explosive growth was triggered originally by the arrival of Gelly’s Geometry E in 2023, and prices have gone even lower from then.
The Geometry E remains the best money-for-value EV in Costa Rica, and unsurprisingly leads the sales ranks, followed by the BYD Seagull and the BYD S1 PRO (BYD Yuan Up/Atto2). These three models account for over a third of total sales. Keep in mind the prices shown in the chart are cost of purchase in China, insurance, and freight, and do not necessarily represent the cost to the final consumer in Costa Rica.
No other model comes close to these three, with the fourth (Chery EQ7) reaching a mere 375 units. When looking for volume, it’s hard to beat affordability.
Costa Rica’s market has several particularities, making it different from other markets in the region. First, it has two large companies fighting for dominance (BYD and Geely) instead of merely being a BYD playground (as is, for example, Uruguay). Second, it has a very large number of models, many of which boast decent sales, making it one of the most competitive markets in the region. And third, and most important, Costa Rica has a large number of private imports (hence the preference for the CIF price), with a lot of costumers preferring to buy directly from China and pay the fees themselves in order to save some money. This is why Costa Rica’s rankings are not based upon registrations (which can take months after the delivery of the vehicle), but imports. Thanks to these private importers, Costa Rica boasts the presence of many vehicles unseen elsewhere in the region, including the Chery ICar and the Chinese-made VW ID.4 and Toyota BZ4X.
Final Thoughts
The Costa Rican market stands as the regional leader, but in 2025 it would seem its leadership is getting more and more challenged. Growth has been comparatively slow (+17%), and amidst booming ICEV sales (+18%), market share has barely grown, staying around 16%. Uruguay, meanwhile, is presenting much higher growth and getting ever closer to Costa Rica market share wise, and this is before the increase in taxes for EVs kicks in up in the Central American country. Should current trends continue, 2025 will end with Uruguay in the lead.
Costa Rica is also affected by a lack of charging infrastructure, something partly to blame on current legislation, as private operators are currently not allowed to provide charge to EVs, limiting the deployment of charging stations to those of electricity providers. There is a project being debated in the country’s Congress of Deputies to end this restriction, something that will no doubt help the transition.
Costa Rica remains a leader and a regional example, yet as Mario said, now comes a difficult period in the transition: going from the early adopters to the early majority without losing steam (as seen, for example, in Europe). In fairness, Costa Rica has a lot going for it, and even if momentum is dropping in recent weeks, it should make the jump to that “early majority” without many hurdles. This is especially the case with more affordable and competitive EVs coming from China (and more recently South Korea) every month.
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