Uruguay EV Sales Report: A New Latin American Leader Emerges as Uruguay Rises to 24% BEV Market Share in August

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Back in 2024, I published this article regarding Uruguay’s unreal EV sales growth in June of that year, which brought market share of EVs up to 15% (up from 6.8% the month prior). Back then, I wrote that hopefully it wouldn’t be a one-off month … but it turned out it was — through the rest of the year, market share barely reached 10%.

This is why when market share surpassed the 20% market share in July 2025, I decided I would wait just one more month to check the trend, lest I report again the rush of an anomalous month. But August arrived, and not only did market share not decrease, it actually increased to 23.9%! And remember, this is for BEVs only, so last month almost 1 in 4 vehicles sold in Uruguay was a purely electric car!

Market Overview

Despite significant growth year-on-year, sales through the first semester stayed relatively stagnant month-on-month, hovering around 900 monthly units from February to June. In July, that trend was broken as sales rose to more than 1,200 units (breaking the 1,000 mark for the first time ever), and in August, we saw further growth as sales surpassed 1,400 units:

A small note here: all months through 2025, except for June, have seen yearly growth of over 140%.

Market share has also risen steadily: if we ignore June 2024 (which throws away the pattern), we see Uruguay reaching 5% BEV market share in March 2024, 10% in August 2024, 15% this past February, and 20% this past July :

(Also, does this mean we should see 30% before December?)

As the market becomes more competitive, we see BYD slowly losing market share, down from around 70% last year to 52% in August 2022. We have a plethora of new, rising players, with Chevrolet being the surprising runner-up thanks to the success of the Chevrolet Spark EUV:

The success of this model has been enough to place Chevrolet in the top 10 for the whole year, despite the Spark EUV being available only for one month. Through the year, BYD clearly leads, with Dongfeng and JAC in second and third place. It’s notable that aside from Chevrolet, the only representative from legacy auto in this list is Volvo, down at #10:

Model-wise, in August, BYD got two of the top three spots (the usual Yuan Pro + Seagull combo), with the Chevrolet Spark EUV taking third place from the Dongfeng Nammi by a mere 8 units:

YTD we see the same outline, only with the Dongfeng Nammi in third. Surprisingly, the Spark EUV made it to #9 despite being available only for the past month.

Notable mentions to the many affordable Chinese-made EVs that have made Uruguay’s market as competitive as it is:

• The well-known BYD Seagull, Dolphin (E2), and Yuan Pro — the first one available from $19,990 (for the 31 kWh version), the second one costing $25,990, and the third one $27,990.
• The Dongfeng Nammi, a 4-meter-long hatchback available from $19,990 with the 31 kWh battery and $22,990 with the 42 kWh battery.
• The JAC E-S3 Ytterby, another 4-meter-long hatchback, but this one only available with a 41 kWh battery for $22,990.
• The Geely Geometry E, yet another 4-meter-long hatchback, this one with a 39 kWh battery and available from $22,490. This model should be replaced by the Geely Geome soon.

• The JMC JMEV3, a hyper-affordable city-car with a 31 kWh battery available for $16,990. This car is just 21% more expensive than the cheapest ICEV in Uruguay: the Renault Kwid (available from $13,990).
• And, of course, the recently introduced Chevrolet Spark EUV, available from $24,990, meaning it’s more affordable than the BYD Dolphin and Yuan Pro but slightly more expensive than all other Chinese EV hatchbacks available with similar specs.

Final Thoughts

In Uruguay, we’re seeing firsthand how the transition to electric mobility can look in developing countries, meaning what’s happening here will most likely be replicated in other less wealthy or more protected markets in the future.

First, we see the market being dominated by affordable EVs, with only the Yuan Pro being somewhat expensive, yet still in the “affordable” part of the SUV segment. There’s a place for expensive EVs, but they will remain a niche market just as expensive ICEVs are.

Second, we see how pricing has been extremely important for adoption to increase. It’s important to note that even if the TCO is below that of a comparable ICEV, people will still hesitate unless the purchase price is similar or at least close. Higher interest rates probably play an important part here.

Third, we see that this massive adoption has been triggered despite Uruguay’s charging network being relatively small. UTE (Uruguay’s electrical utility company) has built a significant number of stations all over the small country, but even today most of them have only 1 or 2 connectors, a lot of them are 22 kW AC chargers with no cable (you have to bring your own), and as far as I can find, there’s not a single station in the country with more than 60 kW of power. This fits something I’ve been saying for a while: in the Global South, affordability trumps convenience, which means that people will be willing to switch before the infrastructure is “ready” so long as they can save a good amount of money doing so. And thanks to Uruguay’s extremely expensive gasoline prices, they do save a lot.

(Though, I’d assume most current buyers can charge at home or at work).

And fourth, we see that Legacy Auto can still compete so long as they bring a good price to the table. This goes for all those companies that could bring EVs from China, but also for the European brands that, it seems, will have a few European-made EVs in the sub-$25,000 segment by 2026. With the recent EU-Mercosur trade agreement, perhaps there’s a chance for these brands to recover at least some of the market share that was lost to their Chinese counterparts.

One last comment: due to the overall market rising slightly, non-BEV sales (ICEV+HEV+PHEV) managed to sustain their numbers through the first eight months of 2025, falling a mere 2%. But in August, thanks to higher BEV sales and slower growth in the overall market, non-BEV sales fell by an impressive 14%, which means we could be witnessing how ICEV sales start melting in Uruguay, bringing forth the new age of cleaner, greener transportation.