Join each day information updates from CleanTechnica on electronic mail. Or comply with us on Google Information!

Uruguay has constantly been the second most superior nation in Latin America so far as electrification goes, and it has at occasions competed with Costa Rica for #1. Being a really small market (with fewer than 100,000 car gross sales a yr), it’s topic to excessive seasonal variability and, as such, its market patterns are tougher to find out than these of Mexico, and even Colombia and Peru.

That is why final June we noticed an enormous improve in EV gross sales that introduced Uruguay to the forefront of the transition and put it forward of a lot of the world, at 15% market share. However within the following months, it grew to become clear this month had been an outlier, and Uruguay went again to its extra “regular” market share, steadily rising from 7% to 10% via 2024’s second semester.

However we’re now in 2025 and Uruguay is as soon as once more exhibiting robust progress and indicators that, hopefully, this time round, BEV gross sales will continue to grow from right here.

Market Overview

Uruguay’s official knowledge doesn’t report PHEVs: it merges all hybrids in the identical class. Nonetheless, it’s telling that even together with HEVs and MHEVs, BEVs greater than double hybrid car gross sales. Uruguay, as Costa Rica, is a market closely skewed in direction of BEVs.

Whole car gross sales usually hover round 6,000 models a month, which means the practically 900 BEV gross sales in February had been greater than sufficient to get Uruguay over 10% market share. That is an all-time excessive BEV file, surpassing December’s prior file regardless of decrease total gross sales:

Market share was 15.4% in February, up from 10% in January and 12.1% in December. The final time we noticed a market share over 15%, in June 2024, it was a transparent outlier (as seen within the following graph), however market share saved rising constantly and has sustained ranges above 10% over the last 4 months. The 15.4% from February could also be a big improve, but it surely doesn’t look like an anomaly:

Uruguay stays the realm of BYD, however its market share has eroded from 75% in June 2024 to 60% in February. Far behind it are Dongfeng (a troubled Chinese language model which can be bought by Changan), JMC, and Chery. Solely two non-Chinese language manufacturers, Hyundai and BMW, made it into the highest 10 this month:

Mannequin-wise, BYD obtained gold, silver, and one other two spots within the high 10, which appears the realm of city-cars and hatchbacks: the BYD Seagull, the Dongfeng Nammi, the JMC EV3, the JAC E-S3, the Geometry E, and the BYD E2 (Dolphin) make a really specific rating the place, for as soon as, SUVs don’t dominate. Nonetheless, the 2 BYD Yuan (Professional and Plus), the Chery EQ7, and the Hyundai Kona make appearances for SUVs. And no matter occurred to sedans?

Yr thus far, the state of affairs could be very comparable, however Volvo is not current within the high 10, with GWM taking its place. BYD maintains 60% market share:

Mannequin-wise, the JMEV EV3 is changed by the Faw Bestune NAT. In any other case, the contributors are the identical in several order. Although, the BYD Yuan Professional stays the undisputed chief:

Closing ideas

I’ve already talked about Uruguay’s hyper-expensive gasoline (round USD$7 per gallon), one thing that undoubtedly has served to prop up EV adoption. The nation can be reliant on inexpensive wind power, the surplus of which is bought to Brazil (which additionally sells electrical energy when Uruguay requires it), so it has the means to supply electrical energy to its rising EV fleet.

Not a lot else is happening on this nation. Although, it bears mentioning that Good (one other Chinese language-bought European model) is arriving quickly in Uruguay. In early 2024, Uruguay nonetheless had comparatively low EV gross sales, so progress this yr has been astronomical (246% yr thus far), however that is clearly going to gradual as adoption will increase. Nonetheless, I’m wondering how lengthy till Uruguay reaches 50% BEV market share. For a very long time, my prediction for the three leaders (Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Colombia) has been “earlier than 2030.” Now, I’m questioning if maybe we are able to begin bringing that date nearer.

2029? 2028? What do you guys assume?

Join day by day information updates from CleanTechnica on e mail. Or comply with us on Google Information!

In 2020, Norway jumped into hydrogen prefer it was the following North Sea oil rush. The federal government launched a nationwide hydrogen technique stuffed with ambitions and buzzwords, envisioning a rustic the place blue and inexperienced hydrogen would decarbonize ships, factories, possibly even houses. In 2021, they doubled down with a hydrogen roadmap that talked about creating home markets and positioning Norway as a serious European provider. They earmarked practically NOK 1 billion—about $100 million USD—for numerous hydrogen pilots and infrastructure investments. It wasn’t pocket change, however it additionally wasn’t remotely near what would have been wanted to make hydrogen power economically viable at scale. Nonetheless, the hydrogen hype cycle was in full spin, and Norway, like a lot of Europe, was alongside for the experience.

The issue, as all the time, was that physics and economics refused to learn the press releases. Hydrogen as an power vector is spectacularly inefficient. Inexperienced hydrogen eats up large volumes of unpolluted electrical energy, with two-thirds of the power disappearing between technology and last use. Blue hydrogen is rather less power-hungry however requires huge infrastructure and comes saddled with upstream methane leaks and a carbon seize system that by no means fairly captures what it guarantees. Norway, a rustic blessed with hydropower and an extended custom of engineering pragmatism, ought to have seen this coming. However the attract of exporting decarbonization in a tank was simply too seductive.

To be scrupulously truthful about Norway’s pure fuel, it is among the greatest engineered and most leak free extraction, processing and distribution programs on this planet, so it has fewer points concerning the full lifecycle greenhouse fuel emissions of blue hydrogen than many different geographies, notably the USA, whose fossil gas trade has the best methane emissions of any on this planet in each absolute and relative phrases by fairly a margin.

By 2024, the shine had worn off. Norway’s new industrial technique, Meld. St. 16, which a Norwegian contact flipped to me right now—thank FSM for web translation—didn’t kill hydrogen outright, however it positively stopped setting a spot for it on the grown-up desk. Useless-end maritime fuels like ammonia nonetheless bought a nod and a few funding from Enova—about $75 million USD throughout 5 initiatives—however the remainder of the hydrogen dream was quietly filed below “too arduous, too costly, too speculative.” The technique speaks in hushed tones about immature markets, poor cost-competitiveness, electrical energy constraints, and transport challenges. That’s bureaucrat-speak for “this isn’t going to work.” The grand visions of hydrogen hubs and European exports have given option to actuality: there’s no demand, no clients, and no monetary logic.

A part of the issue was that Norway’s premise was plentiful electrical energy, however Norway’s energy surplus isn’t what it was once. Demand is hovering because the nation electrifies every little thing from oil platforms to automotive chargers to knowledge facilities. In the meantime, hydropower—the historic spine—has maxed out. They’ve dammed most of what will be dammed, and local weather volatility isn’t serving to reservoir ranges. Wind energy? That stalled after NIMBYs realized 180-meter generators weren’t invisible. Add in export obligations by way of interconnectors to Germany and the UK, and also you’ve bought electrons flowing out simply when home industries are begging for extra. Even the place provide exists, the grid isn’t maintaining—factories are ready years for connections.

A few of Norway’s flagship hydrogen initiatives have been meant to be recreation changers. As a substitute, they turned cautionary tales. The deliberate Aukra blue hydrogen facility, backed by Shell, was scrapped when no consumers materialized. Billions in infrastructure, and no one needed the product. It was speculated to be a cornerstone of Norway’s hydrogen export desires. Seems, nobody in Europe needed to pay a premium for a molecule that loses half its power earlier than it even reaches a pipeline.

Then there was the Hellesylt Hydrogen Hub, pitched as a full-circle inexperienced power ecosystem: electrolysis, hydrogen storage, and zero-emissions ferries all powered by clear hydropower. The buzzwords have been robust, the diagrams slick. However after years of consultant-heavy studies and no critical off-take agreements, it too quietly evaporated. Like many of those initiatives, it collapsed not from opposition however from inaction—dying by silence.

To the notice about consultants, apparently Norway’s hydrogen trade has about 1,100 folks in it and a full 50% are consultants. That gravy practice has ended, so that they’ll need to search for actual jobs now.

I took a have a look at Norway’s maritime hydrogen push in my December 2024 piece “Extra Hydrogen Maritime Trials Floor from the Sargasso Sea.” What I discovered wasn’t fairly. Norway, a rustic with a globally revered shipbuilding trade—ranked sixth in Europe primarily based on income—and a few of the most electrified transport wherever, had poured a piece of its innovation capital right into a gas that by no means made sense for its use case.

The MF Hydra was speculated to be the crown jewel—the world’s first liquid hydrogen-powered ferry. However if you pull again the curtain, it’s a logistics nightmare and a local weather head pretend. The hydrogen is liquefied in Germany, trucked greater than 1,300 kilometers to Norway, can’t even undergo tunnels and has to get particular permission to take ferries at particular low-traffic occasions due to security restrictions. The top consequence? The MF Hydra emits about twice as a lot CO₂ full lifecycle because the diesel ferry it was supposed to interchange. Its power prices are roughly ten occasions increased, its emissions are 40 occasions increased and it travels slower than Norway’s well-proven battery-electric ferries.

And this isn’t a one-off glitch—it’s systemic. Norway thought hydrogen would give its shipbuilders a technological edge within the age of decarbonization. As a substitute, they ended up chasing a dead-end gas that’s outperformed by batteries in nearly each ferry route they function. I in contrast it to what British Columbia is doing in Canada: investing straight in battery-electric ferries and increasing shore energy. No unique gas. No costly infrastructure. Simply clear, quiet, quick vessels that work.

Equinor, for its half, learn the room. In late 2024, it scrapped plans to construct the world’s first offshore hydrogen pipeline to Germany. The $3 billion infrastructure mission collapsed below its personal weight, largely as a result of nobody needed the product on the different finish. Across the identical time, Equinor slashed its deliberate investments within the power transition by 50 % and walked again its clear power capability targets. It’s nonetheless claiming that it’s going to be web zero by 2050, however as a substitute of doing it by pivoting to renewables, it’s claiming it’s going to do it by lowering emissions from its fossil gas extraction, processing, refining and distribution and from burying CO2.  The retreat isn’t tactical—it’s a full-blown give up with a well mannered press launch.

Norway hasn’t utterly buried hydrogen, however the grave is dug, the coffin’s half-lowered, and somebody simply forgot the final shovelful of grime. The nationwide technique not positions hydrogen as the way forward for power. It’s a contingency plan at greatest, a backup dancer searching for a stage.

What’s most telling is that Norway isn’t framing this as a failure. It’s doing one thing way more Scandinavian: quietly altering course with out drawing consideration to the truth that the unique plan was flawed. The federal government nonetheless funds some hydrogen tech improvement and nonetheless talks about worth chains and innovation. Nevertheless it has stopped pretending that hydrogen will substitute electrons for heating, transportation, or grid-scale storage. And thank FSM for that.

Hydrogen for power is useless. Not wounded. Not stumbling. Useless. Norway has simply chosen a quiet funeral over a dramatic eulogy. Equinor’s pipeline cancellation, the shift in authorities messaging, and the collapse of early flagship initiatives all level in a single path: a know-how that promised every little thing and delivered nothing. Norway’s engineers, economists, and power planners are lastly aligning with the legal guidelines of physics. The one factor left is to say it out loud.