Violent crime fears stoke $1b a year armoured car industry in Brazil

Employees of Carbon, Brazil's leading car armoring company, work at the factory in Sao Paulo. Photo / Victor Moriyama, Bloomberg

The scene is harrowing. In the dark of night, a compact Jeep is caught in slow traffic on a residential street in Rio de Janeiro. Two men on a motorbike pull up next to the SUV; one hops off, lifts up a gun and points it at the driver.

In Brazil, these types of videos are everywhere, a mainstay of news programmes, neighbourhood group chats and local Instagram accounts. They’re clipped from security cameras that capture the violent encounters when men ambush cars stuck in gridlock or stopped at lights and rob their occupants of cash, mobile phones and jewellery.

But this video was different. The driver and her son were in an armoured car, fortified against bullets. Instead of handing over her purse and mobile phone, she turns the wheel and smashes directly into the attackers. In an instant, the men are knocked over and trapped under the SUV with their motorbike, stuck waiting for the police to haul them away.

Carbon employee working in the ballistic glass test cabin. Photo / Victor Moriyama, Bloomberg

The high-stakes counter-attack and similar stories are prompting Brazilians to buy armoured cars at a record clip as residents of Rio, Sao Paulo and other cities look to protect themselves against increasingly visible violent crime. As the videos stoke anxiety, middle- and upper-class Brazilians see car armouring as an essential layer of defence beyond the walls, cameras and fences that already guard their homes.

Brazil is now the world’s top armoured car producer, making four times as many units as No 2 Mexico. The business is worth 3.5 billion reais ($1.1b) a year, with output forecast to climb by a third in just two years as prices drop.

“What makes a person seek protection is fear,” said Marcelo Silva, president of Abrablin, the national association for the armouring industry. “If people see that they have the financial means and the possibility of converting their regular car into an armoured vehicle, they do it. And those who drive an armoured vehicle never let go.”

The surge is rooted in the reality of living in Brazil’s major cities, where residents on average spend almost two hours a day commuting, trapped in traffic that exposes them to the threat of ambush. Security consistently ranks among Brazilians’ top concerns in public opinion surveys, and while the homicide rate has declined over the past decade, it’s still among the world’s highest. The country has just 2.7% of the global population, but accounted for more than 20% of murders worldwide in 2022, according to a report from the Bertelsmann Stiftung think tank.

With more than 80% of Brazil’s urban residents saying they fear walking in their own city, and broad reluctance among the middle class and wealthy to set foot on public transit, commuting by car is a dangerous necessity for many.

Ballistic glass tested at the Carbon factory. Photo / Victor Moriyama, Bloomberg

Almost 400,000 armoured cars now circulate almost imperceptibly through Brazilian streets. They’re not the flashy convoys of politicians or military officials, but instead regular Toyotas, Jeeps, BMWs and Volkswagens that have been made bulletproof. In 2024 alone, output jumped 17% to 34,402 vehicles. This year, the industry association expects a 16% increase in production to 40,000 units.

There are more than 200 companies in Brazil certified to armour cars for civilians. Customers generally buy regular cars from dealerships, then take them to the armouring companies to be reinforced with armoured glass and ballistic coatings. Prices for the most protective and popular systems that the army allows non-military users to purchase – known as Level III-A – have dropped by about 25% over the past decade and now cost from 80,000 reais to 100,000 reais, making the protection accessible to a much wider slice of the middle and upper-middle class.

At the highest levels, the armouring is deemed “resistant” to bullets fired from common street weapons, including high-powered handguns but excluding military-grade ammunition.

Security lifestyle

In large urban centres, gated communities with high walls, electric fences and multiple checkpoints have become standard for those who can afford them. Yet that sense of control vanishes once residents step into the unpredictable streets.

A Carbon employee carries a body panel. Photo / Victor Moriyama, Bloomberg

Rogerio Leandro de Abreu, a 47-year-old business owner who lives near Sao Paulo, bought his first armoured vehicle in 2022 and has since added a second. His commute isn’t very long, and he’s never been attacked while driving. But he fears for his family’s safety when his wife and two sons are out and about, and so he added ballistic protection to two of his vehicles, a BMW X1 and BMW X3.

“He has a third unarmoured vehicle in the garage and says he avoids using it because he feels unsafe. He’s considering getting it armoured.

Brazil’s leadership in vehicle armouring dates back to the 1990s, amid a surge in kidnappings targeting wealthy families in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. One high-profile case – a failed abduction of billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann’s children – helped fuel sales after the family’s armoured car proved decisive in their escape.

Silva said the armouring process was more cumbersome 20 or 30 years ago, often requiring extremely heavy ballistic material made from steel that affected the car’s handling. It generally didn’t fit as well, often leaving gaps in protection.

Over three decades, Brazil has grown a sophisticated manufacturing ecosystem. Local firms now produce ballistic glass, protective fabrics and polymer-based armour panels that help preserve the original design and performance of vehicles. This vertical integration has made Brazil’s technology competitive abroad.

The largest manufacturer, Carbon, based near Sao Paulo, armours as many as 700 cars a month and serves as the global provider for Volvo AB. Under the partnership, Volvo cars are shipped to Brazil for armouring and then delivered to customers across Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.

Expanding ecosystem

As the market matures, Brazil’s industry is eyeing overseas opportunities. Silva said US and European firms have inquired about partnerships and technology transfers. The first Brazilian Armoring Industry Expo was held this year in Sao Paulo, drawing companies and representatives from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

The security boom is also spawning new business models.

Rogerio Leandro de Abreu in his armored car. Photo / Victor Moriyama, Bloomberg

When Daniil Sergunin moved to Brazil in 2020 from Switzerland, friends’ advice to buy an armoured car seemed absurd. Three years later, he resigned from his vice-president post at EuroChem Group AG to create Rhino, a rideshare company that works like Uber or Lyft but uses only armoured vehicles.

Operations began in January 2024 in São Paulo. The company has 300,000 registered users. It owns a fleet of vehicles, and its drivers are trained in security. Sergunin declined to reveal details about Rhino’s finances, but said it was founded with an initial 25 million reais and has since received another 15 million reais from investors.

Renata Porto Boccia, a 34-year-old content creator who lives in São Paulo, said she’s always nervous going out by herself, especially at night. She was once robbed by gunmen who smashed the windows of a taxi she was riding in.

Five years ago, she bought her own armoured car. And now, whenever she isn’t driving herself, she hires a Rhino to go to dinner or clubs with friends at night.

“It’s very dangerous, especially for a woman, to walk alone, to ride in cars that aren’t armoured,” Boccia said in an interview. “I’m a very optimistic person, but unfortunately I think this movement will only grow from here on. I don’t see any improvement in the violence issue, and traffic is getting worse and worse.”

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