JATO Dynamics has released its list of the top-selling car brand and models in 2018, which analyses the top 54 markets in the world. According to the company, 86 million vehicles (passenger and commercial) were sold in these markets last year, representing a year-on-year decline (from 2017) of 0.5%.
Jumping into the part you’re probably more interested in, Toyota managed to retain its top spot by selling 8,091,277 vehicles this year – a 3% gain from 2017. Coming in second place is Volkswagen with 6,746,204 units (+1%), while rounding up the top three is Ford, which continues its sales decline to 5,329,290 units (-11%).
Looking at the list, positions four to eight are unchanged from 2017, with Honda taking the fourth spot followed by Nissan, Hyundai, Chevrolet and Suzuki. Rounding up the top ten is Kia (ninth) and Mercedes-Benz (tenth). The Korean carmaker managed to reverse its less favourable performance in 2017 to achieve a 4% sales growth to 2,638,782 units.
Other gainers on the list include BMW, Mazda, Jeep, Geely, Skoda and Mitsubishi, while decliners are Renault, Peugeot, Fiat, Buick, Opel/Vauxhall and Baojun. Non-movers beyond the top ten are Subaru and Citroen, both dropping one place from their 2017 positions.
From an individual model perspective, the Ford F-Series trucks once again dominate the sales chart with 1,076,153 units sold, followed by the Toyota Corolla at 934,348 units. Both models saw very little to no growth from 2017 figures, but still managed to keep the same positions as in 2017.
Moving on, the Honda Civic climbed to the third spot with 812,767 units, while fourth through sixth is an all-SUV affair, with the Toyota RAV4, Nissan X-Trail/Rogue and Honda CR-V. The Volkswagen Golf slipped from its third spot in 2017 to occupy seventh place in 2018, with 731,561 units sold.
Other noteworthy models that made it into the 25-model list include the VW Passat (eighth), Honda HR-V/XR-V/Vezel (tenth), VW Tiguan (twelvth), Toyota Camry/Aurion (13th), VW Polo (14th), Hyundai Avante/Elantra (16th), Honda Accord (20th), Mercedes-Benz C-Class (24th) and Mazda CX-5 (25th).
Analysing JATO’s data, SUVs once again drove sales in the global market, with 29.77 million units sold in 2018, a volume growth of 7%. This comes at the expense of other car types, with MPVs posting a drop by 14% to six million units, while hatchbacks, sedans and station wagons saw volume fell by 8%.
On the other hand, pick-up trucks experienced an increase in global volume by 5% to 5.2 million units, largely thanks to the Thailand and Brazil markets. As a side note, 84% of the F-Series’ global volume was recorded in the United States.
In other segments, battery electric vehicles saw a significant sales growth of 74% to 1.26 million sales in 2018, backed by Chinese demand for EVs, the diesel crisis in Europe, and the Tesla Model 3 being available in more markets – it is also the world’s best-selling EV.
In terms of sales by region, China is the largest market with 28.08 million vehicles sold, accounting for over 30% of global sales. Meanwhile, the entire Europe took second place in the global rankings with 17.7 million sales, and the United States in third with 17.3 million units.
