Explore: The (modern) cars of Cuba

February 25, 2026
Matt Gasnier
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Thanks to one of our readers JFK we can share with you today exclusive pictures of the modern cars of Cuba. We have already covered 1950s vintage Americans (60,000 are still in circulation) symbolic of the country, so this post will focus on the more recent car park in Cuba. The Cuban car market structure is a fascinating testimony of the country’s last 60 years history. Originally though to be exclusively composed of Russian and Chinese cars, the Cuban car park is actually a lot more diverse.

First and foremost there are over 100,000 Lada sedans, the most visible legacy of the country’s Cold War alliance with the Soviet Union. The most popular seem to be the 2105/2107 variants that started their career in the 1980s.

Other, more recent Ladas are also seen, such as the Largus and Vesta. No Granta in sight though.

Then, again due to political closeness, Chinese cars have made a significant mark on the Cuban park, with many different brands. The Geely eK and Emgrand taxi are the most frequent. We also have the Dongfeng Rich pickup, BYD F3 and S6, Great Wall Deer, Chery Arrizo 3, MG 3 and 6, Maxus G10 and Foton Tunland pickup. However most of these cars date back to the 2010s and the real recent ones are scarce. Part of our Photo Report, we have a brand new Bestune T55.

A very surprising element of the Cuban car park is the prevalence of French models, exclusively Renault and Peugeot. While truly recent cars are rarer (Renault Logan, Sandero, Duster, Peugeot 301 and 3008), older vehicles are more common, such as the Renault 9, 19 Chamade, Fluence, Scenic and the Peugeot 205, 206, 309 and 406.

The other nationality frequent in Cuba and not related to the country’s political allegiances is Korean cars. We have very recent ones such as the last generation 2020 Hyundai Elantra pictured just below. Older generations Elantra, as well as the Kia Picanto, Hyundai i10 sedan, Hyundai Creta and even some Daewoo’s are also present.