diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/env.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/env.ts
index 95589b9b1e55b1..338de6784497d8 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/env.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/env.ts
@@ -47,19 +47,9 @@ export function loadEnv(
     process.env.BROWSER_ARGS = parsed.BROWSER_ARGS
   }
 
-  try {
-    // let environment variables use each other
-    expand({ parsed })
-  } catch (e) {
-    // custom error handling until https://github.com/motdotla/dotenv-expand/issues/65 is fixed upstream
-    // check for message "TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'split')"
-    if (e.message.includes('split')) {
-      throw new Error(
-        'dotenv-expand failed to expand env vars. Maybe you need to escape `$`?',
-      )
-    }
-    throw e
-  }
+  // let environment variables use each other
+  // `expand` patched in patches/dotenv-expand@9.0.0.patch
+  expand({ parsed })
 
   // only keys that start with prefix are exposed to client
   for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(parsed)) {
diff --git a/patches/dotenv-expand@9.0.0.patch b/patches/dotenv-expand@9.0.0.patch
index fb6859346d75d1..979879e22a602c 100644
--- a/patches/dotenv-expand@9.0.0.patch
+++ b/patches/dotenv-expand@9.0.0.patch
@@ -1,8 +1,19 @@
 diff --git a/lib/main.js b/lib/main.js
-index c873cc77229d4cd0cf9de98ae0970b25d89f312f..ddf570558e985760efde52af37a41b56282d30a6 100644
+index c873cc77229d4cd0cf9de98ae0970b25d89f312f..901758c6b665d2935501404fc09c6abd94b7eb1e 100644
 --- a/lib/main.js
 +++ b/lib/main.js
-@@ -50,9 +50,10 @@ function expand (config) {
+@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@ function _interpolate (envValue, environment, config) {
+       replacePart = parts[0]
+       value = replacePart.replace('\\$', '$')
+     } else {
++      // PATCH: compatible with env variables ended with unescaped $
++      if(!parts[2]) {
++        return newEnv
++      }
+       const keyParts = parts[2].split(':-')
+       const key = keyParts[0]
+       replacePart = parts[0].substring(prefix.length)
+@@ -50,9 +54,10 @@ function expand (config) {
      config.parsed[configKey] = _interpolate(value, environment, config)
    }
  
diff --git a/playground/env/.env b/playground/env/.env
index 7d2085287f2c39..bca550ecc1f768 100644
--- a/playground/env/.env
+++ b/playground/env/.env
@@ -2,4 +2,10 @@ VITE_CUSTOM_ENV_VARIABLE=1
 CUSTOM_PREFIX_ENV_VARIABLE=1
 VITE_EFFECTIVE_MODE_FILE_NAME=.env
 VITE_BOOL=true
-VITE_EXPAND=$EXPAND
+VITE_EXPAND_A=$EXPAND
+VITE_EXPAND_B=$DEPEND_ENV
+VITE_ESCAPE_A=escape\$
+VITE_ESCAPE_B=escape$
+IRRELEVANT_ENV=$DEPEND_ENV
+IRRELEVANT_ESCAPE_ENV=irrelevant$
+DEPEND_ENV=depend
diff --git a/playground/env/__tests__/env.spec.ts b/playground/env/__tests__/env.spec.ts
index dc4a32653efdab..281c055e0041c0 100644
--- a/playground/env/__tests__/env.spec.ts
+++ b/playground/env/__tests__/env.spec.ts
@@ -46,7 +46,8 @@ test('NODE_ENV', async () => {
 })
 
 test('expand', async () => {
-  expect(await page.textContent('.expand')).toBe('expand')
+  expect(await page.textContent('.expand-a')).toBe('expand')
+  expect(await page.textContent('.expand-b')).toBe('depend')
 })
 
 test('ssr', async () => {
@@ -54,11 +55,20 @@ test('ssr', async () => {
 })
 
 test('env object', async () => {
-  const envText = await page.textContent('.env-object')
-  expect(JSON.parse(envText)).toMatchObject({
+  const env = JSON.parse(await page.textContent('.env-object'))
+  expect(env).not.toHaveProperty([
+    'DEPEND_ENV',
+    'IRRELEVANT_ENV',
+    'IRRELEVANT_ESCAPE_ENV',
+  ])
+  expect(env).toMatchObject({
     VITE_EFFECTIVE_MODE_FILE_NAME: `.env.${mode}`,
     CUSTOM_PREFIX_ENV_VARIABLE: '1',
     VITE_CUSTOM_ENV_VARIABLE: '1',
+    VITE_EXPAND_A: 'expand',
+    VITE_EXPAND_B: 'depend',
+    VITE_ESCAPE_A: 'escape$',
+    VITE_ESCAPE_B: 'escape$',
     BASE_URL: '/env/',
     VITE_BOOL: true,
     SSR: false,
diff --git a/playground/env/index.html b/playground/env/index.html
index 9b698ff237e426..3e146fae6184d1 100644
--- a/playground/env/index.html
+++ b/playground/env/index.html
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ <h1>Environment Variables</h1>
 <p>import.meta.env.VITE_INLINE: <code class="inline"></code></p>
 <p>typeof import.meta.env.VITE_BOOL: <code class="bool"></code></p>
 <p>process.env.NODE_ENV: <code class="node-env"></code></p>
-<p>import.meta.env.VITE_EXPAND: <code class="expand"></code></p>
+<p>import.meta.env.VITE_EXPAND_A: <code class="expand-a"></code></p>
+<p>import.meta.env.VITE_EXPAND_B: <code class="expand-b"></code></p>
 <p>import.meta.env.SSR: <code class="ssr"></code></p>
 <p>import.meta.env: <span class="pre env-object"></span></p>
 <p>import.meta.url: <span class="pre url"></span></p>
@@ -32,7 +33,8 @@ <h1>Environment Variables</h1>
   text('.ssr', import.meta.env.SSR)
   text('.node-env', process.env.NODE_ENV)
   text('.env-object', JSON.stringify(import.meta.env, null, 2))
-  text('.expand', import.meta.env.VITE_EXPAND)
+  text('.expand-a', import.meta.env.VITE_EXPAND_A)
+  text('.expand-b', import.meta.env.VITE_EXPAND_B)
 
   function text(el, text) {
     document.querySelector(el).textContent = text
diff --git a/pnpm-lock.yaml b/pnpm-lock.yaml
index 62dc61b2240b13..8e48e76538290a 100644
--- a/pnpm-lock.yaml
+++ b/pnpm-lock.yaml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ packageExtensionsChecksum: 2a87e01b470616d3b7def19cc0830231
 
 patchedDependencies:
   dotenv-expand@9.0.0:
-    hash: 6vdpvodnfhahap67xag6diqqtu
+    hash: dccccn23nvejzy75sgiosdt2au
     path: patches/dotenv-expand@9.0.0.patch
   sirv@2.0.2:
     hash: hmoqtj4vy3i7wnpchga2a2mu3y
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ importers:
       debug: 4.3.4
       dep-types: link:src/types
       dotenv: 16.0.3
-      dotenv-expand: 9.0.0_6vdpvodnfhahap67xag6diqqtu
+      dotenv-expand: 9.0.0_dccccn23nvejzy75sgiosdt2au
       es-module-lexer: 1.1.0
       estree-walker: 3.0.3
       etag: 1.8.1
@@ -4939,7 +4939,7 @@ packages:
       is-obj: 2.0.0
     dev: true
 
-  /dotenv-expand/9.0.0_6vdpvodnfhahap67xag6diqqtu:
+  /dotenv-expand/9.0.0_dccccn23nvejzy75sgiosdt2au:
     resolution: {integrity: sha512-uW8Hrhp5ammm9x7kBLR6jDfujgaDarNA02tprvZdyrJ7MpdzD1KyrIHG4l+YoC2fJ2UcdFdNWNWIjt+sexBHJw==}
     engines: {node: '>=12'}
     dev: true