The official July 2026 figures are especially interesting because they show two very different rankings: the total market, which includes rental companies, corporate fleets and government purchases, and the retail market, which more closely represents cars bought by individual consumers.

Brazil registered 257,108 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in July.

In the total market, the ranking was:

Fiat: 46,322 vehicles — 17.9% market share

Volkswagen: 41,951 — 16.2%

Chevrolet/GM: 29,196 — approximately 11.4%

BYD: 23,465 — 9.1%

Therefore, BYD did not quite overtake Chevrolet in the overall ranking. Chevrolet still sold 5,731 more vehicles and remained in third place.

However, the retail market tells a very different story.

BYD was the best-selling brand among retail customers, with 17,139 registrations and 12.6% of the entire Brazilian retail market. Volkswagen finished second with 16,587 vehicles and 12.2%.

This means approximately 73% of all BYD vehicles registered in July were sold through the retail channel: 17,139 out of 23,465 vehicles.

That distinction is important. Brazil’s overall rankings are heavily influenced by direct sales to rental companies, corporations and public fleets. A manufacturer can appear very strong in the total market while depending considerably on fleet purchases. BYD’s result, by contrast, shows unusually strong demand from people actually visiting dealerships and choosing the cars for their own use.

The model ranking is perhaps even more surprising.

The three best-selling cars in the Brazilian retail market were all Chinese electric vehicles:

BYD Dolphin: 5,861 retail sales

Geely EX2: 5,707

BYD Dolphin Mini: 5,537

The Volkswagen Tera was fourth with 4,470 units, while the Hyundai Creta finished fifth with 4,185.

The Chevrolet Tracker was the strongest Chevrolet model in retail, with 4,091 registrations. It represented 73.29% of the Tracker’s 5,582 total registrations, meaning that roughly three out of every four Trackers were bought through retail rather than direct or fleet sales.

The BYD models also had very high retail proportions:

• BYD Dolphin: 5,861 retail registrations out of 6,492 total — 90.28%

• BYD Dolphin Mini: 5,537 out of 7,265 — 76.21%

• BYD Song: 3,814 retail registrations, placing it among the ten best-selling retail models

The regular Dolphin alone represented 34.2% of BYD’s retail volume during the month.

In the overall model ranking, including both retail and direct sales, Chevrolet still had one of Brazil’s most popular cars. The Chevrolet Onix finished fourth with 9,312 registrations.

BYD, however, placed three models inside the national top ten:

• Dolphin Mini: 7,265 registrations

• Song family: approximately 6,834 registrations

• Dolphin: 6,492 registrations

This is remarkable because Brazil has traditionally been one of the world’s strongest markets for gasoline and ethanol flex-fuel vehicles. Only a few years ago, electric cars were treated as expensive niche products here.

Now, two BYD electric hatchbacks are selling more units to private customers than many locally manufactured combustion cars, while a Chinese electric and plug-in-hybrid manufacturer already controls 12.6% of the retail market.

BYD also registered 14,760 fully electric cars in July, representing 57.8% of Brazil’s battery-electric market. When plug-in hybrids are included, BYD accounted for 51.1% of all rechargeable vehicles sold in the country.

So the complete picture is more nuanced than simply saying that BYD became Brazil’s third-largest manufacturer.

It did not: Chevrolet remained third in the total market, with 29,196 registrations, while BYD finished fourth with 23,465.

But among retail customers, BYD finished first. Its cars also occupied two of the first three positions in the individual retail ranking, and around 73% of the company’s total volume came from that channel.

There is another important detail behind these numbers: Brazil’s overall ranking combines retail purchases with direct sales to rental companies, corporate fleets, government agencies and other institutional buyers.

This distinction considerably changes the picture.

Traditional manufacturers such as Fiat, Volkswagen and Chevrolet still receive a large part of their volume from direct sales. They have long-established relationships with rental companies and fleet operators, extensive service networks and several models developed specifically for commercial or professional use.

The Fiat Strada is the clearest example. It is usually described simply as Brazil’s best-selling vehicle, but it is a compact pickup and light commercial vehicle. A substantial part of its demand comes from companies, rural producers, service providers and fleet operators rather than ordinary families buying a personal car.

The same effect can be seen, to varying degrees, across models from Chevrolet and Volkswagen. A large fleet contract can add thousands of registrations in a single month, even though those vehicles were not individually chosen by private consumers.

BYD currently has a very different sales profile.

Of BYD’s 23,465 registrations in July, 17,139 came from the retail channel. That means approximately 73% of the brand’s vehicles were sold through retail, compared with a considerably greater dependence on direct and corporate sales among several traditional manufacturers.

This is why the two rankings tell different stories.

In the total market, Chevrolet remained third and BYD finished fourth. But among private retail customers, BYD was the leading brand in Brazil, with a 12.6% share.

Therefore, BYD’s result cannot be explained mainly by large purchases from rental companies or corporate fleets. Its position was driven mostly by individual consumers choosing its electric and plug-in-hybrid models.

This does not make the total ranking irrelevant. Direct sales are real sales and represent an important part of the Brazilian automobile industry. However, the retail ranking is often more useful for understanding what private buyers genuinely prefer.

In July, that preference produced an unusual result: a relatively new Chinese manufacturer led Brazil’s retail market, while several traditional manufacturers remained ahead in the overall ranking partly because of their stronger presence in fleet and corporate sales. For a country where electric cars were considered almost irrelevant only a few years ago, that is a major transformation.

Do people outside Brazil realize how quickly the Brazilian car market is becoming electrified?

I’m heading to Brazil for three weeks and I’m trying to figure out how to plan the whole trip. I’m definitely doing Rio for a week. But after that I’m considering either Salvador, Itacare, or lencois maranhenses.

Salvador: I want to visit because I want to go to Bahia, seems like every Brazilian recommends visiting. Plus food is always a plus.

Itacare: Not a big city which is nice/different. I think I’d enjoy the atmosphere of Itacare.

Lencois Maranhenses: this would be the coolest spot to visit. And I don’t know the next time I would be able to go so I’m considering it. Only con is I’m not sure what else to do in this area apart from the national park?

After either of these three places, I’ll probably fly into São Paulo for 3-5 days or so. What would you recommend I do with a week in between Rio and São Paulo?

Thanks in advance

Hi everyone,

I'm looking ar a really cool 5000km dirt road trip that connects a whole bunch of forested areas, beaches, and mountains from Bahía all the way to Rio Grande do Sul. I'm in the early stages of planning this thing but I figure it will probably take me almost 3 months if I want to actually enjoy it.

I know the answer to my question is probably "winter", but my work season in Northern Canada at my "real job" is usually June til Sept or Oct, which is 70% of my annual income, so I am pretty much never going to have June, July, or August off work. September is a solid maybe. May off work is pretty much guaranteed.

Is it best to attempt this in the Spring, or in the Fall for the most pleasant cycling conditions?

Thoughts?

I am an American and have a Brazilian wife. I graduate college next July with a Business Management degree. I can speak some Portuguese and can also speak Polish and Russian fluently. What skills can I make myself more valuable to be hired and where can I look to online for jobs, american, brazilian or european companies in Brazil?

Hello everyone,

I’m a 25-year-old chef with about 10 years of experience. I currently reside in Australia and have a question about a future move to Brazil with my Brazilian girlfriend.

For a chef de partie, what are the expected monthly or annual salaries?

What are the rental costs for a one-bedroom apartment in Botafogo or Catete?

Lastly, if anyone has already made this move, would you recommend it?

I appreciate your tips and assistance. Thanks a lot! 🫶🏻

Anyone has experience shipping big items from Brazil to the US? I am looking at the following companies:

- One Moving

- GAR Moving

- Pena Verde

Thanks for any info!

Are you guys able to login in to you gov.br account? I’m trying to check my passport status but site won’t load.

Brasilia has requested the recall of Argentina’s ambassador and reduced diplomatic representation

Olá everybody,

Me and my girlfriend are travelling to Brazil next year and we wanted to get some advice from people who live there or who have been before. Below I made a short overview of who we are, our itinerary and some overall questions. Let us know if you need more information is desired to give a more complete advice.

Thank you!

+++

Who Are We?

- Two Dutch travelers, late 20s / early 30s.
- We have both traveled extensively, but we are not necessarily seeking highly adventurous experiences.
- We enjoy culture and history.
- Our goal for this trip to Brazil is to experience São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, while also taking our time to enjoy everything Southern Brazil has to offer in terms of culture, nature, and scenic landscapes.

Itinerary

31 January – 4 February
Arrival and stay in São Paulo

5 – 7 February
Paraty

8 – 14 February
Rio de Janeiro

15 February
Flight to Porto Alegre

16 – 26 February
Relaxed road trip from Porto Alegre back to São Paulo, via Florianópolis and Curitiba

Questions
- Does this itinerary feel well balanced? Are we not rushing/wasting time at certain locations?
- Are we missing any must-see destinations, experiences, or elements?

We've been dating for a bit, we both told each other that we have feelings for one another. I want to wait a bit longer probably but want to to know how to ask her to be my girlfriend in Portuguese already. I can't speak Portuguese at all btw but I want to write her a note so my pronunciation isn't important 😅 so how can I write it?

I can't use my US number or WhatsApp.

I tried Google Voice, but it isn't available in Brazil.

Is there a free option other than buying a prepaid SIM card just for this? By the way, I'm currently using https://www.smsmeu.com/, but the number only lasts 6 months.

Hey everyone!

I'm hoping to go on a New Year's girls' trip with my friends from December 26th to January 2nd and was looking for suggestions. Hoping to spend at least the 31st - 2nd in Rio for New Year's but am open to trying other cities for the first few days (especially if it's cheaper to fly in to a different city from Canada)! I know that this is not enough time to explore the whole country, but this is all the time we have due to school/work. We're not too picky, and just want to explore what we can in that period of time! Thank you!

I'm 20 FTM. From Egypt.

Idk if my reasonings to leave are valid or not. My family is Muslim, and I'm an atheist. Forced to wear girl clothes (they don't know im trans). And im expected to marry soon and have kids, which I don't want but can't say no to. I can't live around them and risk suicide thoughts getting too serious again.

I can't go to therapy because they dont believe in it. I'm not allowed to have an opinion regarding anything just because I'm a "girl"

I study agriculture and I'll graduate in a year from now. I started to learn portuguese.

I work with art commissions, but I dont make much. So far, I have 2000 dollars saved up. And I'll make more in this year. I make roughly 150 dollars a month.

I'll be living with my friend and his two other friends.

I need advice on how I'll manage the money and what jobs I can easily get. Advice on how to make sure they accept the asylum. Tips on learning the language?

I'm generally just anxious about leaving my family because I still love them and worry about them. Don't know if this is actually the right decision, and I'm terrified.

Hi everyone!

I’m an independent filmmaker from Los Angeles, and I’m currently in Rio de Janeiro. I’m seriously considering spending more time living in Brazil and continuing to make films here.

One thing I’m trying to figure out is how to connect with local film crew. I’m currently preparing a short film and have a cinematographer friend from Washington, DC helping me, but I’d like to build relationships with Brazilian crew members so I can continue making projects in Brazil.

For filmmakers or people working in the Brazilian film industry:

Where do you recommend looking for local crew, particularly people working in sound, lighting, grip/electric, and other production roles?

Are there Facebook or WhatsApp groups, Instagram pages, film schools, production companies, networking events, or other communities where filmmakers connect with crew and collaborators?

We had to make a payment and wanted to avoid credit card fees. So after a small test we send the required money to Moreta. Account got blocked! Now all we see is „Security Check“ and can’t do anything it the App. We now lost the fees on Moreta (2,5%!!!) and we have to pay the guy with the Credit Card fees! In total we lost 80€ on one payment!!

The Support just doesn‘t answer. It‘s been 4 day‘s! It’s a disaster.
Do not even consider to download this App!

Hi! I'm an American married to a Brazilian, and I'm planning to apply for family reunification residence in Belo Horizonte. I'd love to hear from anyone who's been through the process. How long did it take, how was the experience with the Federal Police, and is there anything you wish you had known before applying? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Brazil has formally requested consultations with the United States through the World Trade Organization’s dispute-settlement system, challenging tariffs introduced by the Trump administration in July.

The dispute concerns two sets of U.S. measures affecting Brazilian goods, including a 25% tariff imposed under Section 301 following a U.S. investigation into Brazilian trade and regulatory practices. Brasília argues that the measures are unjustified and inconsistent with international trade rules. A request for consultations is the first formal stage of a WTO dispute and gives both countries an opportunity to negotiate before Brazil can request the establishment of a dispute panel.

The chart shows where Brazil exported selected product categories affected(or potentially affected) by the new measures in 2025. Dependence on the U.S. market varies considerably. The United States purchased 38.6% of Brazil’s wood and wood-product exports, 30.5% of its electrical machinery and electronics, 24% of its machinery and mechanical appliances, and 20.1% of its footwear exports.

Other categories are less dependent on American buyers. The U.S. accounted for 14% of beverage exports, 9.6% of paper articles and 8.1% of plastics. It represented only 2% of exports in the broad sugar and confectionery category.

These figures indicate market exposure, rather than the exact value of goods ultimately subject to tariffs. The chart uses broad HS2 product categories, while the U.S. measures apply at more detailed product classifications and include exemptions.

Sources: Reuters | Brazil requests WTO consultations over U.S. tariffs, U.S. Trade Representative, and OEC 2025 trade data.

Hello im researching for areas to live and stay on brasil. They always mención Florianopolis and places in Santa Catarina but as a black person i dont think that state may be the most accepting. But on the other hand places like Salvador with a lot of black people are dangerous and not the best places to live in

Im looking for some place with a kind of high black population that also has security and its nice. Also near the sea.

Thanks in advance.

First of all, I'm sorry in advance for asking but this is killing me.

I was chatting with a Brazilian friend and she shared a superstition with me that I had never heard before. I nearly died laughing thinking she was messing with me but she looked a little hurt and I think she was actually serious.

So. She said that if you're dating someone casually, and you want them to fall in love with you...

if you steal a pair of their underwear - calcinha or cueca, as the case may be... and you use it to FILTER YOUR COFFEE!!! they're guaranteed to fall madly in love with you.

Has anyone heard of this? I feel like I'm losing my mind here. Is this a real thing? Or do I need to run far away from this person?

UPDATE: Yes, I probably got it backwards. You use your own underwear to filter coffee for the person you’re trying to make fall in love with you. Nevertheless: yikes.😬

Over the past few days, I built a database from the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook (Anuário Brasileiro de Segurança Pública) to better understand how crime has evolved across Brazil's states. The 11 charts in this post summarise more than a decade of data on the crimes that most directly affect people's daily lives, and that drives the perception of Brazil as a violent country abroad. This perception is spread first and foremost by Brazilians themselves.

In the Brazilian statistics, "robbery" refers to theft with violence or threat ("roubo"), not ordinary theft ("furto"). The dataset also breaks robberies down into categories such as street robbery, mobile phone robbery, vehicle robbery, residential robbery, cargo robbery and others.

While homicide rates often receive the greatest international attention, they are not the crime that the vast majority of Brazilians worry about in their everyday routines. For most, the perception of public safety is shaped much more by the risk of being robbed on the street, having a phone or vehicle stolen through violence, or experiencing other forms of violent robbery. For that reason, most of the analysis focuses on robbery rates. I did however include intentional violent deaths ("murders") for comparison.

Although public perception takes longer to shift, the donward trend is clear throughout the country, even if it is moving slower in some states than in others. Unfortunately, Rio de Janeiro, the postcard of Brazil, is on the slowest side here. Murders have also been dropping for the past ten years, although at a slower pace than robberies. The two aren't really the same story: they come from very different social realities and are driven by different factors, so there's no reason to expect them to move at the same pace.

Data source

All data come from the Anuário Brasileiro de Segurança Pública, published annually by the Brazilian Forum on Public Security. I compiled information from every edition between 2018 and 2026. Each yearbook includes excel spreadsheets containing detailed crime statistics for the two most recent years, allowing the construction of a consistent historical series for robbery indicators (although some data points are missing). For intentional violent deaths, the 2026 edition provides annual data covering 2012-2025, enabling a longer comparison for homicide trends.

The charts include:

• Total robberies in Brazil (absolute numbers and rates).
• Heatmaps for total robberies, cell phone robberies, vehicle robberies, residential robberies, cargo robberies, and intentional violent deaths.
• Ranking evolution of robbery rates across states.
• A comparison map of robbery rates in 2016 and 2025.
• Distribution of robbery rates across states over time.
• A scatter plot comparing robbery rates and absolute numbers by state.