Portuguese 
China produces more electric vehicles than it can absorb, Europe has created barriers, and Latin America has become a strategic market just as Brazilians begin to question whether the financials really add up
For years, electric vehicles were marketed as the almost obvious choice for those wanting to step into the future: less spending on fuel, lower maintenance, silence, technology, and the promise of escaping the problems associated with combustion engines.
However, part of that calculation is starting to become apparent now. As Chinese manufacturers need to find buyers for their massive production, Europe and the United States are erecting barriers, while Brazil and Latin America gain importance as destinations for these vehicles.
This does not mean that Brazil is receiving defective cars discarded by Europeans. The movement is more troubling: a production that is facing increasing difficulties in advancing into wealthy markets is being redirected specifically to countries where there is still room to capture millions of buyers.
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Europe has imposed barriers, and China needed to find another way
In 2025, China produced approximately 16 million electric cars, a volume about 20% above its domestic demand. With an increasingly aggressive price war within the country, exporting has become not just an opportunity but a strategic imperative.
Chinese exports of electric vehicles doubled and exceeded 2.5 million units that year. More than half have already gone to markets outside Europe and the United States, with only Latin America registering a growth of approximately 55% in one year.
Europe has not stopped buying Chinese vehicles, but its stance has changed. The European Union has begun imposing additional tariffs on electric vehicles manufactured in China, while demand has weakened at certain times, and consumers have shown greater resistance to some brands.
The European share of the value of Chinese electric vehicle exports, which exceeded 70% in 2021, fell to approximately 40% in 2024. When one of the main doors begins to close, the industry quickly seeks others.
And one of those doors has become Brazil
The reflection can be seen on the streets. In 2025, nearly 85% of electric cars sold in Brazil were manufactured in China, according to the International Energy Agency.
Brazil, Mexico, and other emerging markets have become increasingly important just as Chinese manufacturers need to continue boosting foreign sales to keep their factories operating at a massive scale.
The price helps explain the trend. Brazilian consumers enter dealerships and find electric vehicles loaded with technology, power, large screens, and prices that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago for this type of vehicle.
In the showroom, the deal seems excellent. The problem is that many expenses and risks start piling up just after the car leaves the showroom floor.
The first shock may appear when it’s time to sell
One of the heaviest costs associated with electric vehicles is still receiving less attention than it deserves: depreciation.
Data from the BV Auto Index, calculated from actual transactions financed by Banco BV, show that electric models launched in 2023 had accumulated 45.6% depreciation by May 2026. Comparable combustion cars lost approximately 20%.
Among electric vehicles from 2022, the difference was even more alarming. The accumulated loss reached 49.3%, while comparable combustion vehicles experienced around 13.4%.
This doesn’t mean that any electric vehicle purchased today will lose half of its value. Some more established models show better performance, but the numbers indicate that choosing the wrong technology at the wrong time can cost tens of thousands of reais.
The problem is straightforward: new models are constantly being released with greater autonomy, better equipment, and lower prices. When the manufacturer cuts the price of a brand-new vehicle, the owner of a car purchased months earlier feels the impact on the used market immediately.
Saving on gasoline doesn’t necessarily mean saving money
This detail completely alters the equation.
A driver may spend three years celebrating the amount saved on gasoline, only to discover during resale that they lost R$ 30,000, R$ 40,000, or R$ 50,000 more than they would have lost with another model.
That’s why comparing only the cost of traveling 100 kilometers on electricity versus gasoline can be misleading. The true cost of the automobile includes purchase price, maintenance, insurance, repairs, depreciation, and the recovery value at the time of sale.
There’s another concern starting to worry Brazilian buyers: what happens when something breaks.
Buying the car may be easy; finding the part later is not always
With dozens of models and brands quickly entering the Brazilian market, the after-sales structures need to grow at the same speed. However, they don’t always succeed.
The magazine Quatro Rodas has already published reports from BYD Dolphin and Dolphin Plus owners who faced delays in repairs, a lack of components, and vehicles remaining at dealerships for extended periods waiting for solutions.
This does not mean that every BYD owner will face the same issue, much less that the challenge is exclusive to Chinese manufacturers. However, it highlights a real risk when sales grow faster than the availability of parts, service centers, and support networks.
BYD itself has tripled its parts inventory in Brazil in about a year and expanded its distribution structure. This decision indicates that after-sales service also needs to hurry to keep up with the enormous growth of the fleet.
For those who rely on their cars daily, waiting weeks for a component can be far more significant than saving a few reais per day on fuel.
The battery also weighs on the minds of used car buyers
Modern batteries come with long warranties, and there’s no reason to treat every electric vehicle like a ticking time bomb poised to require a costly replacement.
The problem arises from the perception of risk. Buyers of used vehicles need to assess the battery’s health, remaining range, warranty, and the potential cost of significant repairs should something go wrong.
In EY’s research, 28% of Brazilians resistant to electric vehicles expressed concern about battery replacement, while 21% mentioned potential higher repair costs.
Even if the issue never materializes, fear may reduce what the next buyer is willing to pay. In other words, the battery can affect resale value long before it shows any defects.
Even a giant with billions found the bill can change
This is where the Hertz case helps illustrate the risk without needing to make the company the star of the story.
The rental giant announced in 2021 an order for 100,000 Teslas, estimated at the time to be around $4.2 billion. A few years later, it began selling thousands of electric vehicles and redirected some of the revenue generated to purchase gasoline vehicles again.
The company faced high costs involving damages and collisions, and strong pressure on the residual value of the fleet. Among additional depreciation losses and costs related to the reduction of those electric vehicles, the disclosed amounts reached approximately $468 million.
Hertz does not prove that electric cars are bad. It shows something much more interesting: even a company specialized in calculating cost per kilometer, maintenance, and resale may find that the promise of savings works very differently in practice.
So is buying an electric vehicle in Brazil a bad decision?
For many people, it can be. For others, it could be an excellent purchase.
The electric vehicle makes much more sense for those who have a garage, can charge at home, drive many kilometers in the city, and plan to keep the same vehicle for several years.
In this profile, the driver takes advantage of low energy costs, reduces fuel dependency, and suffers less from temporary resale fluctuations because they do not intend to change cars quickly.
It can also work very well for families with more than one vehicle and companies with predictable routes, especially when there is in-house charging and control over how many kilometers each car drives.
The risk increases for those who have only one car, plan to change it in a few years, depend heavily on resale, and choose a brand or model that still lacks a robust after-sales service in the country.
For many Brazilians, hybrids may end up being less risky
Brazil still has an advantage that makes this discussion different from Europe: ethanol on a national scale.
While other markets discuss a more direct transition from fossil fuels to electricity, Brazil already has millions of flex-fuel vehicles and a ready fueling network.
Therefore, hybrids and flex-fuel hybrids may make more sense for a large portion of the population. They take advantage of some of the efficiency of electrification without requiring the driver to depend exclusively on a battery.
EY itself assesses that Brazil tends to follow a particular route, combining ethanol, flex hybrids, fleet electrification, and pure electric vehicles exactly where the economic equation really adds up.
The change is already evident in surveys. The preference of Brazilian consumers for combustion vehicles rose from 35% to 49%, while only 9% of respondents expressed a preference for fully electric models.
Brazilians may be paying to solve a problem that isn’t theirs
Electric vehicles are not disappearing. China will continue producing millions of units, and the technology will continue to hold significant space in the global market.
The problem is different: the Chinese industry has created capacity to produce far more than its internal market can absorb, while Europe and the United States have begun imposing bigger obstacles to protect their own industries.
In this scenario, Brazil and Latin America emerge as perfect destinations: large markets, consumers interested in technology, and space for brands still looking to grow outside of Asia.
For manufacturers, this is a commercial strategy. For Brazil, it can mean quick access to more modern and affordable cars. But for consumers, the questions need to be much more uncomfortable.
What will that car be worth in three or four years? Will there be parts when it breaks? How long will it be out of service? What will resale look like? And how much will someone be willing to pay for a used battery when it’s time to change ownership?
The risk isn’t simply that Brazil will receive “cars that Europe discarded.” It’s something more subtle: turning into the ideal market to absorb production that other countries have started to hinder, particularly while Brazilians are still discovering what it costs to own these vehicles after the dealership allure fades.
