In the past, battery cars were niche vehicles with high prices and very low sales volume, we remember some of them
We have electric cars sold in Brazil for 16 years. In the beginning, they were very niche vehicles and came through luxury brands, very different from the current scenario where we have battery-powered models starting at R$ 118.990 and in the top 10 of sales.
The big turning point for electric cars was in 2023, with the arrival of the BYD Dolphin. But here we will remember the models that arrived before and have already left the scene.
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The first electric car sold in Brazil was the BMW i3, which was not quite an electric car. The first version to arrive was the REx, in 2015, which brought a small 2-cylinder engine and 647 cm³ that acted only as a generator.
As the gas tank was very small, only 9 liters, it was classified as an electric car with range extender in Europe. The traction is always by the electric motor, this two cylinders only recharges the battery.
The BMW i3 is unlike anything the brand sold, it was a compact hatch with minivan influences. The interior is well used and airy, covered with recycled materials. Among its oddities, we have the suicide-type rear doors and the 19-inch wheels with thin tires, 155 mm at the front and 175 mm at the rear.
Renault was the first of the generalist brands to bet on electric cars. The Zoe arrived in 2018 with a price of R$ 149.900, a salty amount for the time when a top-of-the-line compact SUV cost R$ 90 thousand.
The Zoe was sold in Brazil until 2023 and managed to score some corporate sales for the brand. Today it is still possible to find some running in applications.
The Fiat 500 was a success in Brazil when it was imported from Mexico and is still on the used market. But the new 100% electric generation did not repeat this ugly, it came only in 2022.
Prices were high and autonomy was small, the arrival of Chinese models ended up burying the 500e. Technically it is still available and appears on the Fiat website for R$ 214.990, but these are stranded units since 2022.
The CMP platform was developed to receive electric, hybrid or combustion cars. Peugeot sells the 208 and 2008 with all three types of propulsion in Europe and tried to repeat the feat in Brazil.
First came the e208 GT, with a proposal to be a hot hatch, but it sold little. Being visually identical to a popular model and costing more than R$ 200 thousand did not help the model.
Then came the e2008 GT SUV, which achieved slightly better sales. Before it was discontinued, it was sold at deep discounts, which made it more interesting.
Nissan brought the first-generation Leaf to run as a taxi during the 2016 Olympics, but sales only started in 2020 with the second generation. In a way this was positive, as the drawing became much more palatable after the change.
The Leaf was another one that had a considerable volume of sales and was greatly harmed by the Chinese. In the used market, it is undervalued because its battery is air-cooled, resulting in less long-term durability.
Electric cars were more rational models until Tesla made them desirable and put larger batteries with the Model S. The Jaguar I-Pace was the first response to the occasion from a traditional brand.
It brought a 90 kWh battery pack and strong performance for the time. But it was a failure, Jaguar’s image was bad and too associated with the noisy V6 and V8 engines with supercharger. In Brazil it was sold from 2019 to 2023.
The first Chinese electric car in Brazil was not a JAC, but the Chery Arrizo 5e. It debuted in 2019 as an electric alternative to the Arrizo 5, which was already assembled in Brazil.
It was only sold in 2019 and the volume was not enough to keep it in line. Chery’s next electric car turned out to be quite different.
The Renault Kwid E-Tech has become a punching bag for fans of Chinese electric cars. The model arrived in 2022 for R$ 142.990, taking the position of the cheapest electric car in the country. This value was reduced with the arrival of the BYD Dolphin and on the eve of the launch of the Dolphin Mini it was reduced once again to R$ 99.990.
In this way, it maintained the position of the most affordable electric car on the market. The problem was convincing the public to pay that amount in a Kwid, no matter how good it was.
In 2025, Renault updated the model by bringing a new multimedia center, digital panel, renewed design and ADAS package, without changing the price. Still, the public turned up their noses at being a Kwid. The Geely EX2 for R$ 20 thousand more was the whitewash in the model.
The Chevrolet Bolt was a very competent electric car: spacious, fast and with 377 km of autonomy. However, the price was salty, like most of the models on this list.
It arrived in 2019 and became the best-selling electric car in Brazil. It was discontinued in 2024, after production in the US ended and the brand shifted its focus to larger models there. Here she bet on more affordable Chinese models.
For a while we had a competition between the cheapest electric cars in Brazil in the range of R$ 150 thousand. Jac had the E-JS1, Renault the Kwid E-Tech and Caoa Chery brought the iCar.
The proposal of the latter was similar to that of the Smart: diminutive size, injected plastic body panels and urban focus. But all this was hindered by the BYD Dolphin, which tied up the sales of this trio and forced them to reduce prices.
