Analyses
18 juin 19

Costa Rica’s five-year EV plan

Since 2010, Costa Rica has enjoyed stable economic growth and a standard of living that is relatively high for the region, strongly developing in the industries of agriculture, technology and tourism.

Although foreign investors remain attracted by the country's political stability and relatively high education levels, as well as the incentives offered in the free-trade zones, Costa Rica and its 2.93 million inhabitants still face relatively low levels of domestic revenue.

While its latest GDP estimate was US$58.9bn (US$11,947 per capita) in 2017, unemployment rose from 8.7% in mid-2018 to just over 10% in 2Q19. The country’s benchmark interest and inflation rates, in April of this year, were 5% and 2%, respectively.

Among the governent’s goals is its ambitious target to get 37,000 plug-in electric vehicles on roads by 2022. In a small country like Costa Rica where sales of new cars and light trucks only average about 50,000 per year, sales of electric vehicles (EV) would need to be at least 15% of total sales.  

To support this, the government adopted a law in early 2018 to encourage electric transport with a long-term view to eliminate hydrocarbon-powered vehicles in the country.

The initiative eliminates sales, customs and circulation taxes for electric vehicles (EV) and allows them to use municipal parking facilities free of charge. Moreover, approximately 61 EV charging stations have been deployed in the country.

Currently, there are three fully electric models available on the market, being the BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, and Hyundai Ioniq, and the Chevrolet Bolt should be coming to the country soon. As for hybrid EVs, leading the pack are Mitsubishi Outlander, BMW X5, Porsche Cayenne S, and BYD Qin. 


2019 Chevrolet Bolt (source: Shutterstock)

For more information regarding taxation, safety, insurance and more on Costa Rica, as well as other countries, visit Global Fleet's Wikifleet pages.

Authored by: Daniel Bland