By Lucinda Elliott and Marco Aquino
MONTEVIDEO/LIMA (Reuters) -When Peruvian green energy entrepreneur Luis Zwiebach wanted to buy an electric vehicle in 2019, he flew 6,500 kilometers to California to test Tesla’s Model 3 sedan. But Tesla had no official importer and could not find a way around Peru’s complex vehicle import procedures.
He was not deterred. “There was a gentleman who had already imported it and wanted to sell it,” Zwiebach said. “So I went to see it and bought it.”
Charging the Tesla at his friend’s beach house outside Lima was initially difficult. “The car was not charging because there was no grounding device,” he said. “We took a fork, stuck it into the ground to create ground, and the car took off.”
Deciding to drive an electric vehicle in Peru today is not that difficult. Tesla still doesn’t have a showroom, but there’s an influx of Chinese models from companies like BYD, Geely and GWM, which sell electric vehicles for around 60% of Tesla’s price, as well as legacy manufacturers like Toyota, Kia and Hyundai. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Chinese automakers are expanding their footprint in South America with both conventional vehicles and electric vehicles. Electric vehicles still make up a small portion of the 135,394 new cars sold in Peru in the nine months through September, but they are on the rise, according to the country’s automotive association. Hybrid and electric vehicle sales reached a record 7,256 units, with an annual increase of 44% in this period.
China has been increasing sales since the Port of Chancay, north of Lima, opened last year. The Chinese-built megaport has halved trans-Pacific shipping times at a time when Chinese manufacturers face increasing barriers to entry to the United States and greater trade restrictions in Europe.
BYD, which produces EVs, plug-in hybrids and internal combustion engine cars, plans to open a fourth dealership in Lima by the end of this year, while Chery and Geely have more than a dozen dealerships in Peru in total.
“The electric car is doing very well here, more than two new cars are sold every day,” said Zwiebach from Lima.
He said growing demand has encouraged him to expand his renewable energy business, offering EV charger installations as well as solar panels and regenerative elevators to customers in Lima and Arequipa, including real estate developers, universities and shopping malls.
“A real estate developer told me he would buy the penthouse if it came with a car charger,” Zwiebach said. “That’s what we did. Just plug it into a socket at home like a phone.”
Chinese automakers face a profit-destroying price war at home and a growing glut of new cars rolling off Chinese factory lines. Much of this surplus is sent abroad to the Middle East, Central Asia and Latin America, according to global automotive analyst Felipe Munoz of JATO Dynamics.
Martin Bresciani, president of Chile’s automotive trade association CAVEM, said the Chinese were “making room” for both electric and gasoline cars. “The Chinese have already shown that they comply with global standards in terms of quality.”
Chinese brands reached 29.6% of all new passenger car sales in Chile in the first quarter of this year.
CHINESE COMPANIES ARE ON THE RISE IN LATIN AMERICA
EV penetration in Latin America, including Mexico and Central America, doubled to around 4% in 2024 and continues to grow, supported by government incentives and an influx of affordable Chinese models, the International Energy Agency noted in its Global EV Outlook 2025.
Latest figures show that EV market share reached 10.6% of new cars registered in Chile in September, 9.4% in Brazil in August and 28% in Uruguay in the third quarter of the year; According to local automobile associations and consulting firms, all these are record levels. In Europe and China, half of new cars registered by mid-2025 were electric vehicles (56% and 51% respectively). Rates were lower in Japan and the United States; close to 2% and 10% respectively.
Even in Argentina, where economic volatility continues and trade barriers are higher, EV sales are rising from a low base. BYD, China’s largest automobile manufacturer, started operations in Argentina for the first time in October. The company currently leads electric car sales in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay.
Part of China’s success has been partnering with reliable local importers to offer more affordable models tailored to regional tastes, according to seven dealers interviewed by Reuters in Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina.
Nowhere is this shift more evident than in Uruguay, where BYD is the third-largest seller of all vehicle types, trailing only General Motors’ Chevrolet and Hyundai. China’s market share has more than doubled in the country since 2023, now reaching 22%.
Luxury car dealer Gonzalo Elgorriaga began displaying BYD models at the entrance to Uruguay’s swanky beach resort town of Punta del Este a few years ago. While it still sells European and Japanese brands, BYD now dominates sales.
“The Chinese hit first and hit hard,” Elgorriaga told Reuters from the Stars Motors dealership overlooking the Mansa beach.
He said Chinese brands are gaining legitimacy and scale. They partner with local banks to offer lines of credit and prize draws. Competitive prices also make it attractive. Prices in Uruguay for Chinese battery electric vehicles (BEV) from BYD start at $19,000.
“I can buy three Chinese pickups for the price of two traditional brands. That’s a big difference,” said Federico Guarino, another Uruguayan car dealer.
NEW MEGAPORT OPENS THE CONTINENT TO CHINA
In Peru’s megaport of Chancay, built as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, rows of white sedans and multicolored containers have replaced the waterfront restaurants that once welcomed weekend visitors to the sleepy fishing town.
“Each ship brings 800 to 1,200 vehicles,” Gonzalo Rios, deputy director of port operator Cosco Shipping, told Reuters in October. Cosco expects the total number of vehicles coming from China to reach 19,000 by the end of the year.
The vehicles coming here go beyond Peru. Cosco Shipping completed its first shipment of vehicles by boat in September, sending 250 vehicles south to Chile, where Chinese brands captured 33% of the overall auto market in July. Another transhipment shipment carrying hybrids and electric vehicles to Chile was underway last week.
Cosco is also directing shipments to Ecuador and Colombia, aiming to turn Peru into a regional distribution center for hybrid, electric and conventional Chinese cars, Rios said. China’s Chery, which held less than 2 percent of Peru’s electric vehicle market in September, is already using the corridor to speed up deliveries across the continent, the company said.
Peruvian customs data show 3,057 cars arrived at the port in July alone, down from 839 in January. Peru does not have a large-scale auto manufacturing industry to complain about the increase in Chinese sales, but it has caused some tension elsewhere, especially in Brazil.
Some Chinese companies are investing in factories in Brazil, where tariff barriers encourage local production. BYD began assembling electric vehicles at Ford’s former plant in Bahia in October, and Great Wall Motors (GWM) began partial production at its renovated Mercedes-Benz facility in August.
Ricardo Bastos, Director of Corporate Affairs at GWM Brazil and president of ABVE, the country’s EV association, said the company expects to start exporting vehicles to the region from its Brazilian factory by 2027 (possibly sooner), taking advantage of positive trade agreements with Mexico, Chile and the South American trade bloc Mercosur.
”Brazil became the third country after Russia and Thailand to acquire a (GWM) factory; this is a strategic decision that shows the strength of Latin America,” Bastos said in an interview.
Large quantities of Chinese cars are also imported to Brazil. The world’s largest car transporter, carrying nearly 22,000 vehicles, docked in the Brazilian port of Itajai earlier this year, according to Reuters calculations.
Brazilian industry and labor groups say China is boosting its exports by taking advantage of temporary low tariff barriers for electric vehicles in South America’s largest auto market, rather than investing in Brazil to build factories and create jobs. BYD has also faced scrutiny over reports of poor conditions for some workers at its new Bahia plant. The government has since reimposed import duties. Tariffs on foreign electric vehicles began returning last year and are scheduled to reach 35% by July 2026. GWM’s Bastos said this was because factories on the site would be important.
Brazil may soon turn Chancay into a regional distribution hub. The port of Vitoria on Brazil’s southeast Atlantic coast is currently the leader in national vehicle imports.
Stephen Deng, BYD’s country manager for Argentina, told Reuters in October that the company was expecting arrivals from Brazil in 2027. “I think we may eventually see Argentina adopt the same EV rates we saw in Brazil,” Deng said.
Bresciani, president of Chile’s automotive trade association, said the adoption of electric vehicles still faces obstacles such as long distances and unstable charging networks in South America.
“If you want to travel the entire Peruvian coast from Tumbes to Tacna, it is difficult,” Zwiebach said.
“But the car costs less to run and never needs to go to the service garage.”
(Reporting by Lucinda Elliott in Montevideo and Marco Aquino in Lima and Chancay, Peru. Additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing, Leila Miller in Buenos Aires, Luciana Novaes Magalhaes in Sao Paulo and Nick Carey in London; Editing by Christian Plumb and Claudia Parsons)
