Automotive

Charted: Carmakers’ Revenue per Employee

Published

7 months ago

March 3, 2024

David Eduardo Zuleta Soriano

Featured Creator

Article/Editing:

Bruno Venditti

Graphic showing carmaker's revenue per employee.

Top 20 Carmakers Ranked by Revenue per Employee

Revenue per employee is an important ratio that roughly measures how much money each employee generates for the company.

In this graphic, creator David Zuleta ranks the top 20 automakers by the revenue generated per employee. Data is based on each company’s market capitalization in 2023, using companiesmarketcap.com.

Kia Leads in Revenue Efficiency

Measuring carmakers’ revenue per employee, Kia emerges as the front-runner, leaving industry giants like Ford and General Motors trailing behind.

The South Korean automaker reached $2.13 million in revenue per employee in 2023. The company’s 34,178 workforce generated a total of $72.67 billion in revenue last year.

Company	Employees	Revenue (USD billions)	Revenue per Employee (USD millions)
Kia	34,178	$72.67	$2.13
Hyundai	63,942	$117.98	$1.85
Ferrari	4,961	$5.85	$1.18
Polestar	2,377	$2.65	$1.12
BMW	149,475	$159.50	$1.07
General Motors	167,000	$169,72	$1.02
Ford	173,000	$169.81	$0.98
Mercedes-Benz	169,355	$160.61	$0.95
Maruti Suzuki India	16,259	$13.82	$0.85
Volvo Car	42,300	$35.89	$0.85
Subaru	37,521	$29.15	$0.78
Toyota	375,235	$283.97	$0.76
Aston Martin	2,473	$1.83	$0.74
Tofaş Türk	5,528	$4.07	$0.74
Tesla	127,855	$94.02	$0.74
Mitsubishi Motors	28,428	$18.59	$0.65
Honda	197,039	$128.24	$0.65
Mazda	48,481	$31.17	$0.64
Nissan	131,719	$82.57	$0.63
Ford Otosan	21,007	$12.26	$0.58

The figure starkly contrasts with the last one on the list, Ford Otosan. The company, equally owned by Ford Motor Company and Koç Holding and based in Turkey, only generated $580,000 per employee, despite its considerable revenue of $12.26 billion.

The presence of Ferrari in the top tier, with $1.18 million per employee, underscores a different strategy where lower volume, high-margin luxury vehicles result in significant revenue per employee.

Among the bigger automakers, BMW and General Motors lead the pack with $1.07 million and $1.02 million per employee, respectively, translating their substantial employee bases into robust revenue streams.

Meanwhile, Tesla, despite its groundbreaking technology, registered revenue of only $740,000 per worker, equal to Aston Martin and Turkish Tofaş Tür. Way ahead of Tesla, another EV maker, Swedish Polestar, achieved $1.12 million and reached fourth place in our rank.

As the data shows, efficiency doesn’t solely reside in the size of the workforce or the legacy of the brand but is also tied to the strategic utilization of human resources.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

Related Topics:toyota volvo ferrari Mitsubishi subaru kia automaker automakers mazda tesla honda general motors Nissan BMW gm ford hyundai

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Automotive

America’s Favorite Car Brands, by Generation

This ranking of America’s favorite car brands reveals some of Gen Z’s unique preferences when it comes to choosing a car.

Published

1 week ago

September 10, 2024

Marcus Lu

America’s Favorite Car Brands, by Generation

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Brand preferences often differ between generations, but does this hold true when it comes to cars?

To find out, we visualized data from Insurify to reveal America’s favorite car brands, by generation. The color of each brand corresponds to its nationality (American, Japanese, etc).

To come up with this ranking, Insurify analyzed car ownership rates across each generation based on 4.5 million customer applications between 2023 and 2024.

Data and Key Takeaways

The data we used to create this graphic is listed in the tables below, starting with Baby Boomers and Gen X.

Rank	Baby Boomer	Boomer Ownership Rate	Gen X	Gen X Ownership Rate
1	🇺🇸 Ford	13%	🇺🇸 Chevrolet	13%
2	🇯🇵 Toyota	12%	🇺🇸 Ford	12%
3	🇺🇸 Chevrolet	12%	🇯🇵 Toyota	10%
4	🇯🇵 Nissan	10%	🇯🇵 Nissan	9%
5	🇯🇵 Honda	8%	🇯🇵 Honda	8%
6	🇰🇷 Hyundai	6%	🇰🇷 Hyundai	6%
7	🇰🇷 Kia	6%	🇰🇷 Kia	5%
8	🇺🇸 Dodge	4%	🇺🇸 Dodge	5%
9	🇺🇸 Jeep	4%	🇺🇸 Jeep	4%
10	🇩🇪 Mercedes-Benz	2%	🇺🇸 GMC	3%

Brand preferences between these two cohorts is largely the same, though Boomers prefer Ford while Gen X prefers Chevrolet.

Boomers also stand out with their #10 choice, Mercedes-Benz. They’re the only generation with a luxury marque in their top 10, which may have something to do with the fact that Boomers own over half of the country’s wealth.

Next, we look at Millennials and Gen Z.

Rank	Millennial	Millenia Ownership Rate	Gen Z	Gen Z Ownership Rate
1	🇺🇸 Chevrolet	13%	🇯🇵 Honda	12%
2	🇺🇸 Ford	11%	🇺🇸 Chevrolet	11%
3	🇯🇵 Toyota	10%	🇺🇸 Ford	11%
4	🇯🇵 Honda	9%	🇯🇵 Toyota	11%
5	🇯🇵 Nissan	9%	🇯🇵 Nissan	9%
6	🇰🇷 Hyundai	6%	🇰🇷 Hyundai	8%
7	🇺🇸 Dodge	6%	🇰🇷 Kia	6%
8	🇰🇷 Kia	6%	🇺🇸 Dodge	5%
9	🇺🇸 Jeep	4%	🇺🇸 Jeep	3%
10	🇺🇸 GMC	2%	🇩🇪 Volkswagen	2%

Millennials have very similar tastes as the previously shown Gen Xers, with only a few brands swapping places.

Meanwhile, Gen Z is unique in that a non-American brand (Honda) is its most popular pick. Zoomers are also the only generation with Volkswagen in its top 10.

Looking at the rankings as a whole, another interesting takeaway is Hyundai’s grip on sixth place across all U.S. generations. Alongside Kia, the two Korean brands have made a big push into the American market over the past decade. They currently command a 10% market share in the U.S., which is double of what it was in 2008.