Latin America’s small champion keeps making headlines and surpassing even the most optimistic expectations. Uruguay’s EV adoption has diverged from the region and reached a level that many of us would’ve though irrationally optimist only two years ago.
Amidst a booming vehicle market, Uruguay EV sales have exploded through 2026, reaching record levels in six out of the eight months this year. The result has been a market that in record time has gone from early adopter to majority adopter, going from 5% to 50% BEV market share in only two and a half years!
EV sales in August grew by an impressive 171% YoY, getting very close to 4,000 units and even surpassing the previous records, set in July, by 22%.
Since Uruguay started providing data on PHEV sales, we’ve been able to add them to our tally, but they remain very limited, representing only around 1/10th of total EV sales. Uruguay, like most other small markets in the region, remains a highly BEV-centric one.
And now we get to the most interesting part: market share. Thanks to impressive growth, EVs now account for 56% of total vehicle sales in Uruguay, 51% of these being BEVs, meaning one in every two cars sold in Uruguay in August had a fully electric powertrain!
As a result, we’re seeing combustion-based powertrains (ICEV+HEV) melt away — despite a strong market (sales in the vehicle market grew by 16% in Jan–Aug 2026 compared to the same period in 2025), fuel-based cars have now fallen 16% throughout the year, and 20% compared to 2024.
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