Electric vehicle sales are booming in South America – without Tesla

South America’s EV scene is popping — and Tesla’s barely in the frame. Chinese brands like BYD, Geely, and GWM are flooding showrooms with cars at around 60% of Tesla’s price, boosted by the China-built Port of Chancay that slashed shipping times. EV sales are still small, but rising fast: Peru’s hybrid/EV sales jumped 44%, while EV share hit record highs in Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay. BYD is opening more dealerships; Tesla still doesn’t even have a showroom. Cue the comment wars. One crowd is cheering the simple math: cheaper cars win. As epmatsw deadpans, these are “trivially substitutable goods” — you don’t need a badge when the price is right. Another camp is roasting Western giants for snoozing; juujian calls the biggest brands “completely left behind.” The spiciest thread blames regulation: billy99k argues over-regulated, lawyered-up carmaking kneecapped the West, while China just shipped. And then there’s the Tesla drama: paxys says the brand was “dead in the water” once the sub-$30K dream fizzled, predicting Tesla will be luxury-only while China owns affordable EVs. Commenters traded memes about Peru’s early days — including the viral tale of charging a Tesla by sticking a fork in the ground — and joked that today you just “plug it in like a phone.” The vibe? Global EV power shift, with readers gleefully declaring, “Price wins” and “prestige who.”