BYD Qin. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Auto dealerships in Costa Rica have been enjoying record sales over the last few years. This is evident on the crowded roads and permanent gridlock around the country, but hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles have been mostly shunned by Tico drivers. However, the launch of a new Chinese hybrid and the promise of a prototype electric car made in Costa Rica are encouraging signs of a paradigm shift.

A previous article in the Costa Rica Star reported that less than 200 hybrid and electric cars have been sold in this country since 2008. As explained in that article, this trend runs counter to Costa Rica’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by the year 2021:

Costa Rica is clearly turning car-crazy; buyers are shrugging off the exorbitant taxes on motor vehicles and purchasing them at a fast clip, but Tico buyers just aren’t into environmentally-friendly cars that much [despite enticing tax breaks offered to buyers].

[…] last year was the best on record for orders of hybrid and electric vehicles in Costa Rica; the bad news, however, is that it was a very low number: 55. Compare that to the 7,800 used and 16,000 new cars that entered our country in 2012 -and many of them were gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles (SUVs).

In mid-November, business daily La Republica reported on the launch of the BYD Qin, a second-generation hybrid that is not only stylish but also powerful. The Qin hybrid is definitely fuel-efficient at 100 km per 1.6 liters of gasoline, and it can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.9 seconds for a maximum speed of 185 km/h.

At the same time the Qin was being introduced in Costa Rica, a group of automotive engineers from San Isidro in the Valley of the General, province of San Jose, were being recognized at the National University campus in Heredia for their work on the CambYoCar, a plug-in electric car concept (with an option to go hybrid) that the engineers hope to turn into a prototype in the next two years. For their innovation, the group received 65 million colones in seed funding (about $130,000). Should these engineers be successful, they would work towards a CambYoCar manufacturing plant in Costa Rica, the first of its kind.

Aside from the Chinese BYD Qin and the CambYoCar concept, a public transportation provider in Guanacaste recently received special financing to change its fleet to hybrid buses. These are certainly great news in a country where vehicular traffic is expected to grow significantly in the next few years.