AUSTIN, Texas — Tesla opened two new markets in less than 24 hours this week, announcing its arrival in Latvia and Uruguay in back-to-back launches that stretch the company's footprint across two continents at once.
The dual entry completes Tesla's expansion across all three Baltic states and gives the automaker its third official market in South America, underscoring a global growth strategy that keeps filling in the map even as the company posts record delivery numbers. The push comes just as Tesla's six-seat Model Y L begins arriving in U.S. showrooms, another sign of a product offensive firing on multiple fronts.
Latvia Completes the Baltic Sweep
Tesla announced Friday, July 17, that it will open its first Latvian location 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, with deliveries estimated for September through November.
Remarkably, Tesla enters Latvia as the country's most popular EV brand despite having had no official presence there. The Model 3 already leads Latvia's electric vehicle registrations with 1,212 units on the road, supported previously by just a pair of Superchargers in Riga and Rezekne.
Pricing is aggressive: the Model 3 starts at €30,990 (about $35,400) before VAT, while the Model Y opens at €34,490. Latvia's charging network jumped 77% in a single year to more than 2,000 public points, and battery-electric sales grew 27% year over year — a small market, but one moving quickly in Tesla's direction.
Uruguay Becomes Market Number Three in South America
A day earlier, Tesla confirmed its arrival in Uruguay, with Elon Musk posting simply: "Tesla now in Uruguay." The company established Tesla Uruguay SAS, homologated three versions each of the Model 3 and Model Y, and named Joaquín Lizarralde as country manager for both Argentina and Uruguay — a hint that a fourth market may not be far behind.
Uruguay follows Chile and Colombia, where the playbook has already proven itself. Since launching in Colombia in late 2025, the Model Y became the country's best-selling vehicle outright — not just among EVs — as registrations surged 304% in April.
Uruguay is an ideal fit for the brand. EVs made up roughly 29% of the market by April 2026, one of the highest adoption rates in the Americas, and the country generated 99% of its electricity from renewables in 2024, making it the most renewables-powered market Tesla sells in anywhere on the planet. Vehicles will ship from Gigafactory Shanghai, with the Model 3 starting at $32,990.
Filling In the Map
Neither market will move Tesla's global numbers on its own, but the pattern matters. Small-market entries added up in Colombia, and Tesla is now applying the same formula — online ordering first, pop-up retail, then Superchargers — across the Baltics and Latin America, the same infrastructure-first approach behind the world's first public Megacharger station in California.
With record second-quarter deliveries of 480,126 vehicles already in the books and fresh markets opening by the week, Tesla heads into its July 22 earnings call with momentum on both sides of the Atlantic — and now, both sides of the equator. Full launch details are available in Electrek's report on the twin market entries.
