Tesla launches in Latvia and Uruguay, expanding on two continents

Tesla opened two new markets in less than 24 hours, launching in Latvia and Uruguay in back-to-back announcements this week.

The dual entry completes Tesla’s expansion across all three Baltic states and gives the automaker its third market in South America — two very different markets that show how the company is chasing growth wherever it can find it.

Latvia completes Tesla’s Baltic sweep

Tesla announced on Friday that it will open its first location in Latvia on August 21, a pop-up store at the Spice shopping center in Riga. Latvian customers can already configure and order the Model 3 and Model Y online ahead of the opening.

The move rounds out a Baltic rollout that began with Tesla’s launch in Lithuania in 2024 and continued with an Estonia launch event in April. Latvia lands last, but on the same track — Tesla registered local business entities in both Estonia and Latvia back in January.

Tesla is entering as the market’s most popular EV brand despite having had no official presence. The Model 3 already leads Latvia’s electric vehicle registrations with 1,212 units, and its only prior footprint in the country was a pair of Superchargers in Riga and Rezekne.

Here’s the pricing, excluding Latvia’s 21% VAT:

The Model 3 starts at €30,990 (about $35,400) for the rear-wheel-drive version and runs up to €48,990 for the Performance. The Model Y opens at €34,490 (about $39,500) and tops out at €53,490. Deliveries for orders placed now are estimated for September through November.

Latvia is a small EV market, but a growing one. Battery-electric vehicles held about 7% of the market through the first eleven months of 2025, with sales up 27% year-over-year, while the country’s charging network jumped 77% in a single year to more than 2,000 points.

Uruguay becomes Tesla’s third South American market

A day earlier, Tesla confirmed its arrival in Uruguay, with Elon Musk posting “Tesla now in Uruguay.” The company held an official presentation on Friday featuring executives and vehicles on display.

Uruguay follows Chile — where Tesla first entered South America with its Supercharger network in 2024 — and Colombia, where direct sales began in November 2025. Tesla named Joaquín Lizarralde as country manager for both Argentina and Uruguay in late June, treating the region as a single operational zone.

Tesla will sell the Model 3 and Model Y directly, with units shipped from Gigafactory Shanghai. The Model 3 ranges from $32,990 for the 534-km standard version to $49,990 for the Performance, with a 750-km Long Range in between at $37,990. The Model Y is priced from $36,490 to $41,490 with 466 km of range.

The market itself is tiny — Uruguay registers fewer than 50,000 new vehicles a year — but its electrification is anything but. EVs made up roughly 20% of the market in 2025 and climbed to 29% by April 2026, one of the highest adoption rates in the Americas.

There’s a cleaner angle, too: Uruguay generated 99% of its electricity from renewables in 2024, making it the most renewables-powered market Tesla sells in anywhere on the planet.

Electrek’s Take

Neither Latvia nor Uruguay will move Tesla’s global numbers much on its own. But the pattern matters. Tesla’s growth has stalled in its core markets, with sales sliding in the US, Europe, and China, so filling in the map with smaller markets is one of the few levers left to add incremental volume.

The Colombia playbook shows the upside. Since launching there in late 2025, the Model Y became Colombia’s best-selling vehicle — not just among EVs, but all cars — as registrations surged 304% in April.

If Tesla can replicate that in a few other small markets, it could be what finally takes it to two million vehicles per year, a goal Elon Musk thought Tesla would have surpassed two years ago – before sales stalled.

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