| Thanks for reading Hyperdrive, Bloomberg’s newsletter on the future of the auto world. Dig through enough electric vehicle sales data for different countries and some interesting trends start to pop out. My team at BloombergNEF has been working on our annual EV Outlook this week, and there’s a clear factor dividing which countries are seeing faster EV adoption and which are going slower: openness to Chinese carmakers. The story within China is well understood now, with plug-in vehicles exceeding 50% of sales and Chinese automakers starting to look abroad to sell more vehicles. But what many don’t realize is how quickly this is already tipping the balance of EV adoption in international markets. Brazil saw EV sales soar more than 500% from 2022 to 2024, Thailand’s EV sales jumped 279% over the same period, and Mexico saw similarly rapid growth. Australia was another standout growth market, with EV sales up 145% in the last two years. The UK’s growth rate was more modest, but it was further along on the adoption curve and now has the highest rate of EV penetration among major car markets in Europe. The common thread between all these markets is their relative openness to Chinese automakers. Thailand is probably the best example of this, with EVs hitting 12% of sales last year and the top five EV sales spots all going to Chinese brands. Other markets have seen similar success. Australia cut EV import tariffs from 5% to zero in 2022; by last year, BYD was the second-most popular EV brand in the country, after Tesla. BYD’s Shark plug-in hybrid pickup just launched and already racked up impressive numbers as the sixth-most popular vehicle model sold in March. Brazil also has been open to Chinese imports, with BYD establishing a significant presence in the market. Brazil plans to re-introduce import taxes at rates ranging from 10% to 35% by June 2026 to encourage local investment. This appears to be working, with BYD, GAC and Great Wall Motor all setting up local manufacturing. The UK has refrained from taking after the European Union’s tariffs on imported Chinese EVs, as has Norway, where Chinese-made EVs are major contributors to the nearly 100% share that electric cars now command on a monthly basis. By contrast, EV sales fell 35% from 2022 to 2024 in Germany, and increased only marginally in the US last year. The US has over 100% tariffs in place on Chinese EVs, while Germany and other EU members have tariffs of up to 45% on Chinese-made EVs, with rates varying by manufacturer. Even in markets where Chinese automakers make up a relatively small share of total EV sales, their presence forces competition and pushes incumbent automakers to put real effort into their EV launches. Companies typically don’t self-disrupt a profitable market — a challenger often is needed to force the issue. Tesla played that role for many years, but the Chinese are now coming on fast. These sales patterns also challenge the idea that EV adoption will be led exclusively by wealthier countries. Thailand now boasts better EV adoption rates than the US, while Brazil has jumped ahead of Japan. Electric vehicles started out as a top-down phenomenon, but they’re quickly shifting to a bottom-up trend. Other factors are at play, with regulations and subsidies in flux for markets like Germany and overall market size also playing a role. But if you want a gauge of which countries will see the most rapid growth rates in EV adoption over the next few years, openness to Chinese automakers might be one of the best indicators.  Robyn Denholm, chair of Tesla’s board. Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm has sold $558 million worth of the company’s stock since 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, building a fortune she’s described as “life-changing.” That’s almost half the $1.2 billion worth of shares sold by Tesla’s current directors in that span, nearly all of which came from exercising options. Denholm and the rest of Tesla’s low-profile board now face questions from some investors over Elon Musk’s focus and future with the company. Members recently reached out to several executive-search firms to work on a process for finding the carmaker’s next CEO, the Wall Street Journal reported. Denholm denied this, saying the board is “highly confident in his ability to continue executing.” | 
