Toyota RAV4 Was The World’s Best-Selling Car in 2022: Study
And its smaller sibling, the Corolla Cross, also sold remarkably well.
Automotive market analysis firm JATO has apparently been doing a lot of counting lately. It's figured out the top 10 best-selling cars globally in 2022, and unsurprisingly, Toyota has come out on top. The Japanese automaker's RAV4 is the best-selling passenger car on the planet with 1.016 million units sold globally. It was followed closely by another Toyota model, the Corolla, which sold 992,000 units.
This is no surprise. The RAV4 was the best-selling car globally in 2021 as well. 2022's third place went to the Tesla Model Y at 747,000 units, fourth was the Honda CR-V at 733,000 units, and fifth was another Toyota, the Camry, with 673,000 units. Over 45% of the Camry's sales came from North America, as well. In fact, four of the top six selling cars globally were sedans. Perhaps the form factor's imminent death is just a hair exaggerated.
Not all of the cars in the top ten were sold in the large global markets. Sixth place was held by the Toyota Hilux pickup, which is not sold in the U.S., seventh place was the only Nissan on the list, the Sentra, and eighth was a newcomer, the Corolla Cross. The Corolla Cross' rise was particularly impressive. The car was only released in 2021 but it has already skyrocketed to global sales hegemony in the compact crossover segment with 530,000 units sold.
Rounding out the list are two American cars, the Ford F-150 and the Tesla Model 3. Only Japanese or American manufacturers were represented on this list. The F-150's sales were 97% North American, with 525,000 units sold. The Tesla Model 3 had a more diverse mix, with about half of its 482,000 sales happening in North America, and roughly the two other quarters happening in Europe and China.
It's worth noting that this list is based purely on nameplateS, which means some cars got left out. The Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 1500 are practically the same truck, for instance, but because General Motors considers them separate models, neither truck appears on this list. If they were combined, they would sit slightly ahead of the F-150.
Overall, the number of new cars sold globally in 2022 shrank by 2% versus 2021. JATO—which has nothing to do with jet-assisted takeoff—expects global automobile prices to come down in 2023 as competition from China, especially in the context of EVs, grows considerably.
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