Rankings of top models & automakers by registrations in the US.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
The thing about Ford pickup trucks is that they used to be the #1 bestseller of all models in the US much of the time. Other full-size trucks were near the top too and made it to #1 from time to time because the US is where full-size pickups are bestsellers.
Pickups these days come with big-fat prices for buyers, and with big-fat profit margins for automakers and dealers. Buyers didn’t mind paying out of their nose for big equipment – but that may be changing now. Fancy pickups – high-powered 4-door 4×4 fully loaded trucks – can cost over $100,000. And the Ford F-150 often ranked at the top and did so again last year.
But that has changed in 2024. The F-150 (both ICE and EV models combined) dropped to #3, actually to #4 in Q1 and picked up some share to end up in the #3 spot for the first half, with a share of 2.7%, behind the Toyota RAV4 (2.8%) and the Tesla Model Y (2.8%), based on registrations, reported by Experian yesterday.
The Chevrolet Silverado 1500’s share rose to 2.5% and it moved up to #5. The GMC Sierra 1500 had a share of 1.4%.
Stellantis has a huge problem. The Ram 1500 – there’s a glut of them now clogging up dealer lots and overflow lots – dropped off Experian’s list of the 20 bestselling models for the first half, from #10 in Q1. Overall, Stellantis dropped to #6 in the first half, now surpassed by Honda and Hyundai-Kia.
The top 5 Bestselling models in the US, according to Experian’s report on registrations (a registration occurs when the new vehicle that was sold to an end user is registered at the DMV to obtain the title):
- #1 Toyota RAV4: share in the first half dropped to 2.8%, from 3.2% in Q1, just a hair ahead of Tesla’s Model Y.
- #2 Tesla Model Y: share rose to 2.8%, its highest share ever (up from 2.6% in Q1), a hair away from being the #1 bestselling model in the US.
- #3 Ford F-150: re-gained share to 2.7%, after having dropped to #4 in Q1 with a share of 2.4%. In Q3 2023, it was still #1, ahead of the Model Y (2.5%), but it’s share had already dropped to 3.0%.
- #4 Honda CR-V: maintained its share of 2.5%, coming in head-to-head with the next pickup in line, the Chevrolet Silverado 1500.
- #5 Chevrolet Silverado 1500: regained share, from the drop-off in prior quarters, and at 2.5%, was back where it had been in Q1 2023
The Big Three US automakers:
- GM (Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, and GMC) remained #1 with a share of 17.0% (up from 15.7% in Q1).
- Ford (Ford, Lincoln) remained #3 but lost share, at 12.4% (from 13.0% in Q1).
- Tesla became #8 in 2023, and has stayed there in 2024. Its share rose to 4.1% (from 3.5% in Q1).
The big foreign automakers:
The “foreign automakers” here manufacture most of the vehicles they sell in the US either in the US or in Mexico. Honda’s models have for years ranked with Teslas at the top in terms of US content. Toyota makes a number of its vehicles in the US, including its full-size pickup (made in Texas). The Camry also ranks near the top in terms of US-content. So “foreign” is not about where vehicles are manufactured, but about the name plates on the vehicles.
- Toyota (Toyota, Lexus) remained #2, well ahead of Ford.
- Hyundai-Kia became the #4 automaker in 2023 and stayed there this year, up from #5 in 2021 and 2022 and #6 in 2020. It’s share reached 10.8% in the second half.
- Honda regained its #5 spot, after having lost it during the period of shortages.
- Stellantis, a European auto-conglomerate formerly known as Peugeot (PSA), acquired FCA – and thereby Ram, Jeep, Dodge, and Chrysler. In the first half, Stellantis got booted down to #6, from #5 in Q1. Its share dropped to 8.3%, from 9.0% in Q1, and from 9.9% in Q3 2023. More on its dealer revolt in a moment
- Nissan remained #7.
| Share Registrations by Automaker | 2024 first half | |
| 1 | GM | 17.0% |
| 2 | Toyota | 15.4% |
| 3 | Ford | 12.4% |
| 4 | Hyundai-Kia | 10.8% |
| 5 | Honda | 8.7% |
| 6 | Stellantis | 8.3% |
| 7 | Nissan | 6.5% |
| 8 | Tesla | 4.1% |
| 9 | Subaru | 4.1% |
| 10 | VW | 3.6% |
| 11 | Mazda | 2.6% |
| 12 | BMW | 2.3% |
| 13 | Daimler | 1.8% |
| 14 | Geely (Volvo) | 0.8% |
| 15 | Tata | 0.6% |
EV market share grew to a record 9.0% in Q2 (April-June), up from 8.1% a year ago. This category covers battery-electric vehicles only and does not include hybrids and plug-in hybrids. And they continue to eat market share from ICE vehicles, despite the ridiculous clickbait media coverage of declining demand for EVs.
A special word of love for Stellantis.
Jeep and Ram dealers in the US are in revolt against Stellantis management that has prioritized high prices and high corporate profit margins – a nasty strategy during the pandemic and shortages – to cater to Wall Street. That strategy worked for a while. And then it didn’t. The market share losses have caused its shares [STLA] to plunge by nearly 50% since their Wall Street benighted peak in March. Greed comes home to roost.
So in a letter sent to Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, a Jeep and Ram dealer advisory group last week raged about top management’s “disastrous choices” and “reckless short-term decision-making to secure record profits” that caused prices to be too high, which then caused the sales decline, the loss in market share, and the glut of vehicles on dealer lots. The letter was viewed by media outlets, including the WSJ.
The dealers accused the company of prioritizing high prices and high profit margins, and giving up sales and market share. They called on the CEO to spend more on promotions and incentives to clear out the glut of vehicles on their lots.
“Your own distribution network, your dealer body, has been left in an anemic and diminished state,” the letter said.
This letter came after months of complaints by dealers – that kept reaching the media – that the company needed to cut prices and increase discounts and incentives, that prices were too high and weren’t competitive, and that they were losing sales because of them, and that they were drowning in a glut of trucks that were getting old and stale on their lots.
That said… Ram and Jeep dealers were among the worst slapping huge and obnoxious addendum stickers on the MSRPs of their trucks during the shortages, and even after the shortages had started to fade, and we hope that potential customers who saw that and walked away in disgust, and those customers that were dumb enough to pay for those addendum stickers, will never-ever forget it and will never-ever set foot in that dealership. And that’s another side of the problem, but Ram dealers brought it upon themselves. They’d violated the old rule in the car business: You can milk a cow many times, but you can bleed it only once.
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Dealers are right.
Jeep prices are in BMW, MB, Audi level for something that they cannot compete.
Why pay $65k for a Jeep GrandCherokee when you can get so many other luxury brand cars.
JEEPS:
If you have a RAV-4, you can remove a spark plug so it runs a little rough, then poke a tiny hole in the oil pan so you have a constant oil leak on the garage floor, and you will feel like a Jeep owner without actually suffering from being a Jeep owner.
The 2024 Jeep Grand Wagoneers MSRP is $90k and they go up to $116k!
The US “truck culture” is probably ending due to the high prices of the trucks themselves, the high price of gas, and the extremely high price of auto insurance. That $86,000 Ram crew cab 4×4 Hemi deluxe ST whatever is a $1000 payment, $700 in gas, and maybe $250 a month in insurance. The Camry hybrid four door that comes in at $500/200/120 starts to look a lot better. “But sometimes I need to help my friends move, or pick up a new flat-panel at Best Buy”.
Nope. If prices were going to do that, they would have already. Americans are bad consumers when it comes to getting what suits them best, but are real good at staying in debt and on budget forever. And the truck cult is too real – too many people insist that they need these for whatever reason – freedom, safety, towing recreational vehicles, carrying something once per year in the bed, or just general comfort – i.e. they’re really fat and need something big. I’m in the camp that anything not 3/4 ton and up is not a truck, at least not for real work purposes. They’re fancy passenger vehicles with a bed. The nonsensical notion that the Sierra and Silverado are different products despite being identical in every way except for badging and minor differences in appearances is something that makes no sense – you’d think GM would be proud to call BS on Ford’s continual claim that the F150 is the best selling pickup, but the vehicle industry generally makes no sense other than it is a pursuit of profit by conservative executives that are forced to actually make something that’s necessary and please Wall Street at the same time. Gas prices would have to double and the unemployment rate would have to triple to break the truck cult.
Don’t you just hate it when people buy stuff you don’t think they should be buying?
@Warren G. Harding it seems like every year for the past 50 years the percentage of people (on BOTH the right and left) that care what other people are buying is increasing (with people on the fringes certain that one more electric car will crash the power grid or one more F150 means climate doom…
I agree. As urbanization increases, trucks will be more and more limited to commercial use.
I think both RAV4 and Model Y (after tax rebate) have good performance/price ratio. Y is certainly cooler, but charging is still a problem for EVs (3 minutes vs 30 minutes). But since most families have at least two cars, RAV4 and Model Y make a good combination I think: Long distance travels with RAV4, urban commutes with Model Y.
I saw a Tesla with an “Elon Sucks” sticker on it. I guess he hasn’t undercut sales too much…
Elon has cut sales plenty. This sales data is lagging and probably a little misleading in terms of Teslas sales velocity.
Nope, the sales data is not lagging, registrations through Q2, same as the link you posted. And the only thing that is misleading is your brain.
But here we’re talking about registrations across the entire US, not just Silicon Valley or California. DUH. Your link referred to California registrations.
Yes, Musk did have an impact in California, it seems. So to see what happened in California, you go to my article on EV registrations in Q2, posted on July 19, DUH:
https://wolfstreet.com/2024/07/19/non-tesla-ev-sales-45-yoy-in-california-tesla-24-people-have-had-it-with-musks-bullshit-about-california-and-san-francisco/
“New vehicle sales in Q2 as measured by registrations, released by the California auto dealer association CNCDA today:
Teslas -24% year-over-year, to 52,211 vehicles.
Non-Tesla EVs: +45% year-over-year, to 49,232 vehicles.”
Wolf – sounds like Ford and Stellantis management are rasslin’ over ‘most incompetent’ rights, but the RAM/Dodge dealer-component are leading Ford’s for that podium position? (…find myself also wondering at the ‘Mopar Muscle’-type advertising $ being expended on the Hornet in the wake of the failure of the nuevo-Dart…).
may we all find a better day.
They’re sure trying to outdo each other.
Tesla at 4.1% and EVs total at 9.0% mean that Tesla is below 50% EV share in the US. If it holds for the year, that would be a first. In Europe they are at 12% EV share, and in China below 10%. Market cap is still at absurd levels. But robotaxis, or whatever…
Yes, that’s the trend. There are now lots of EV models on the market by new automakers and by the legacy automakers. Even Toyota is finally starting to dabble in them.
9% EV share of all sales in a country like the US is actually very impressive, with all the smear jobs in the media I was starting to doubt what I believed. I guess it’s really time to put legacy media to bed, it’s just not working anymore in the age of the internet.
Having said that I don’t know if my next car will be an EV, I’m a slow adopter, and I really like my current ICE vehicle. But if the trend continues I’ll be looking at jobs in utility companies, could be some opportunities there 😆
Foreign nameplate vehicles may be assembled in the US, but where do the parts come from? Where are all the engineers that do the designs. Where are the head office executive jobs?
As I pointed out in the article, that’s why the measure of “US content” is important. Ford and GM rank very low, but Tesla, Honda, Toyota, VW rank highest.
The EV market share at 9% and Tesla Model Y number 2? Never would have believed it 5 years ago. A lot of deceptive media about the EV market going on today.
Thanks for posting.
Electric car sales “worldwide” account for 18% of car sales in 2023, last year it was 14%, 5 years prior it was 2%. So I imagine for this year 2024, it will be well over 20% and by 2030 with more charging stations and better battery technology it could be close to or above 40% worldwide… picking up steam it appears. Even Santa will be giving up the reindeer for an electric sled…
( This is what Google says) ???
Soon the telephone pole, the gas stations and the stock market will relics of the past.
“Stellantis Plunges off Greed Cliff. ” never truer words spoken….spot on!!!!
@Jim Basham am I the only one who is ready to hear “Ask your doctor if Stallantis is right for you” after hearing the made up name for the new Euro owned Chrysler Corp.
My friends just bought the Nissan Ariya EV and they really like it. Slightly higher price point but a quality vehicle. Will be interesting to see who in the long run the winners and losers will be in this space. I drive my ICE RAV4 so little that no reason to consider a change but 5 years from now when technology is several generations further along and perhaps reliable charging for more than commute I might consider.
Tesla’s margins have dropped sharply so they are cutting prices to attain their higher unit sales. Not sure how those price declines compare to the other major manufacturers.