Electric car sales more than doubled in Brazil in 2021

Despite the benefits of not emitting pollutants and being cheaper to fuel, electric cars have not yet fallen in with the Brazilian public. The biggest villain remains the high cost of battery-powered vehicles, but infrastructure issues also hamper the mass adoption of this type of mobility.

Here in Brazil there is not yet a wide network of public chargers and even homemade outlets need to be prepared to charge an electric. There is also no appropriate legislation for charging points and, as a result, the charging service cannot yet be billed as a service.

Despite all the obstacles still present, sales of electrified cars — which include 100% electric and hybrid cars — continue to grow in the Brazilian market. Data from Anfavea, an association that brings together distributors of motor vehicles, showed strong growth in the month of October.

Among electric cars, 1,805 units were licensed between January and October 2021. The number is 125.3% higher than in the same period last year. The expectation is that the total growth by the end of the year will be greater than 150% in comparison with the accumulated result for 2020.

Between January and October 2021, registration of 25,135 units of cars with some level of electrification, of the most different types of hybrid vehicles, was registered. The growth was 32.68% in comparison with the same accumulated last year.

While in 2020 electrified vehicles, including electric vehicles, reached 1% of the total market share, in 2021 this number is already 1.7%. Considering all passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, regardless of propulsion, the Brazilian market sold 1,619,990 units.

In total, models that use electricity in propulsion accumulated 27,097 units until October, 74% more than in the same period in 2020 (15,565). In October alone, 2,823 electric and hybrid vehicles were licensed, a number 24% higher than in October 2020. In comparison with September 2021, the growth reached 2.69%.

According to the Brazilian Electric Vehicle Association (ABVE), the good performance of electrified models has been led by flex hybrid cars, which combine a propulsion engine capable of running on gasoline or ethanol in any proportion together with an electric one. And this happens despite the fact that only two 0 km models offer such technology: they are the Toyota Corolla and Corolla Cross, manufactured respectively in Sorocaba (SP) and Indaiatuba (SP).

The Toyota duo was responsible for 53% of all license plates for electrified vehicles in Brazil between January and October, totaling 14,446 units in the year. Considering that license plates for all hybrids here were 15,600 units, the two models made in Brazil are responsible for 92.6% of all sales in this category.