Automotive
The Best Selling Vehicles in America, By State
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The Best Selling Vehicles in America, By State
From Ford trucks in the Midwest to Toyotas on the coasts, the best selling vehicles in America reveal a lot about the country.
Compared to other countries with fewer highways or narrower roads, the U.S. is very much a truck-friendly country. Across the U.S., the most sold vehicle in 2019 was the Ford F-Series of trucks, primarily the F-150.
As the home of the world’s pioneer automotive manufacturers, including Ford and GM, consumers primarily purchase local brands. But that hasn’t stopped Toyota, the largest foreign manufacturer in the world, from also gaining a foothold.
This graphic uses 2020 sales data from automotive information resource Edmunds.com, breaking down the best selling vehicles in each state through new vehicle retail registration.
What Are the Best Selling Vehicles in Each State?
Despite a slowdown in vehicle sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a global chip shortage, Americans still bought plenty of trucks last year.
In fact, 48 out of the 50 states had a truck or SUV as the top selling vehicle in 2020—and most states actually had trucks taking all of the top three spots. The only two with a car topping the leaderboard were California and Florida.
Top Selling Vehicle By State (2020) | #1 | #2 | #3 |
---|---|---|---|
Alabama | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | Toyota Camry |
Alaska | Ram 1500-3500 | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado |
Arizona | Ram 1500-3500 | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado |
Arkansas | Ram 1500-3500 | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado |
California | Honda Civic | Toyota RAV4 | Toyota Camry |
Colorado | Ford F-Series | Ram 1500-3500 | Toyota RAV4 |
Connecticut | Honda CR-V | Toyota RAV4 | Subaru Forester |
D.C. | Toyota RAV4 | Honda CR-V | Subaru Forester |
Delaware | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Florida | Toyota Corolla | Ford F-Series | Toyota RAV4 |
Georgia | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Hawaii | Toyota Tacoma | Toyota 4Runner | Toyota RAV4 |
Idaho | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 | Chevrolet Silverado |
Illinois | Ford F-Series | Honda CR-V | Chevrolet Silverado |
Indiana | Chevrolet Silverado | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Equinox |
Iowa | Chevrolet Silverado | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 |
Kansas | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Kentucky | Chevrolet Silverado | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 |
Louisiana | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Maine | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Maryland | Toyota RAV4 | Ford F-Series | Honda CR-V |
Massachusetts | Toyota RAV4 | Honda CR-V | Ford F-Series |
Michigan | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Equinox | RAM 1500-3500 |
Minnesota | Chevrolet Silverado | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 |
Mississippi | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Missouri | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Montana | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 | Chevrolet Silverado |
Nebraska | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Nevada | Ram 1500-3500 | Ford F-Series | Toyota RAV4 |
New Hampshire | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | Toyota RAV4 |
New Jersey | Honda CR-V | Honda Civic | Toyota RAV4 |
New Mexico | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 | Chevrolet Silverado |
New York | Honda CR-V | Toyota RAV4 | Jeep Cherokee |
North Carolina | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
North Dakota | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Ohio | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 | Chevrolet Silverado |
Oklahoma | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 | Chevrolet Silverado |
Oregon | Toyota RAV4 | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 |
Pennsylvania | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 | Honda CR-V |
Puerto Rico | Toyota RAV4 | Toyota Yaris | Toyota Corolla |
Rhode Island | Toyota RAV4 | Honda CR-V | Ford F-Series |
South Carolina | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
South Dakota | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 | Chevrolet Silverado |
Tennessee | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Texas | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | RAM 1500-3500 |
Utah | Ford F-Series | RAM 1500-3500 | Chevrolet Silverado |
Vermont | Ford F-Series | Toyota RAV4 | RAM 1500-3500 |
Virginia | Ford F-Series | Toyota RAV4 | Honda CR-V |
Washington | Toyota RAV4 | Ford F-Series | Ram 1500-3500 |
West Virginia | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | Ram 1500-3500 |
Wisconsin | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado | Ram 1500-3500 |
Wyoming | Ram 1500-3500 | Ford F-Series | Chevrolet Silverado |
The Ford F-Series was the clear leader in sales, primarily in the Midwest. With a top-selling spot in 60% of U.S. states, the F-Series was the best selling vehicle in America.
Combined with the Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 1500-3500 series, the big three American truck brands accounted for 73% of the top three selling vehicles across all American states and territories.
Japanese Automakers in the Mix
Though American manufacturers had the best selling cars in most states, they had some overseas competition.
Japanese manufacturers Toyota and Honda had the top-selling vehicle in 11 states (and D.C.). They primarily captured car sales along the coastlines, including in California, Florida, New York and Washington, some of the most populated states in the country.
America's Best Selling Vehicles (2020) | Type | # Times in Top 3 |
---|---|---|
Ford F-Series | Truck | 45 |
Ram 1500-3500 | Truck | 36 |
Chevrolet Silverado | Truck | 33 |
Toyota RAV4 | SUV | 18 |
Honda CR-V | SUV | 10 |
Chevrolet Equinox | SUV | 2 |
Honda Civic | Car | 2 |
Subaru Forester | SUV | 2 |
Toyota Camry | Car | 2 |
Toyota Corolla | Car | 2 |
Jeep Cherokee | SUV | 1 |
Toyota 4Runner | SUV | 1 |
Toyota Tacoma | Truck | 1 |
Toyota Yaris | Car | 1 |
Despite many cars being available for sale in the U.S., only seven manufacturers made the top-selling vehicles list in 2020.
- Ford
- Ram
- Chevrolet
- Toyota
- Honda
- Subaru
- Jeep
With the full effects of the COVID-19 pandemic yet to be reflected in the sales, and electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla on the rise, how will the best selling vehicles in America evolve?
Automotive
Global EV Production: BYD Surpasses Tesla
This graphic explores the latest EV production data for 2022, which shows BYD taking a massive step forward to surpass Tesla.

Global EV Production: BYD Surpasses Tesla
This was originally posted on Elements. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on natural resource megatrends in your email every week.
2022 was another historic year for EVs, with annual production surpassing 10 million cars for the first time ever. This represents a sizeable bump up from 2021’s figure of 6.7 million.
In this infographic, we’ve used data from EV Volumes to visualize the top 15 brands by output. The color of each brand’s bubble represents their growth from 2021, with the darker shades depicting a larger percentage increase.
Data Overview and Key Takeaways
The raw data we used to create this infographic is listed below. Volume figures for 2021 were included for convenience.
Rank | Company | 2022 | 2021 | Growth from 2021 |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 🇨🇳 BYD | 1,858,364 | 598,019 | 211% |
2 | 🇺🇸 Tesla | 1,314,319 | 936,247 | 40% |
3 | 🇩🇪 VW Group | 839,207 | 763,851 | 10% |
4 | 🇺🇸 GM (incl. Wuling Motors) | 584,602 | 516,631 | 13% |
5 | 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇫🇷 Stellantis | 512,276 | 381,843 | 34% |
6 | 🇰🇷 Hyundai Motors (incl. Kia) | 497,816 | 348,660 | 43% |
7 | 🇩🇪 BMW Group | 433,164 | 329,182 | 32% |
8 | 🇨🇳 Geely Auto Group | 351,356 | 99,980 | 251% |
9 | 🇩🇪 Mercedes-Benz Group | 337,364 | 281,929 | 20% |
10 | 🇫🇷 🇯🇵 Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance | 335,964 | 289,473 | 16% |
11 | 🇨🇳 GAC Group | 287,977 | 125,384 | 130% |
12 | 🇨🇳 SAIC Motor Corp. | 256,341 | 237,043 | 8% |
13 | 🇸🇪 Volvo Cars | 253,266 | 220,576 | 15% |
14 | 🇨🇳 Chery Auto Co. | 253,141 | 107,482 | 136% |
15 | 🇨🇳 Changan Auto Co. | 245,555 | 105,072 | 134% |
16 | 🌎 Other (41 companies) | 1,927,211 | 1,326,262 | 45% |
Includes BEVs and PHEVs
BYD Auto
BYD Auto has leaped past Tesla to become the new EV king, boosting its output by a massive 211% in 2022. Given this trajectory, the company will likely become the world’s first automaker to produce over 2 million EVs in a single year.
BYD has a limited presence in non-domestic markets, but this could change rather quickly. The company is planning a major push into Europe, where it expects to build factories in order to avoid EU tariffs on Chinese car imports.
The company is also building a factory in Thailand, to produce right-hand drive models for markets like Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.
Tesla
Tesla increased its output by a respectable 40% in 2022, staying ahead of Western brands like Volkswagen (+10%) and GM (+13%), but falling behind its Chinese rivals such as Geely (+251%).
Whether these Chinese brands can maintain their triple digit growth figures is uncertain, but one thing is clear: Tesla is facing more competition than ever before.
The company is targeting annual production of 20 million cars by 2030, meaning it will need to keep yearly growth rates in the high double digits for the rest of the decade. To support this initiative, Tesla is planning a multi-billion dollar factory in Mexico capable of producing 1 million cars a year.
Hyundai
Hyundai Motor Company, which also owns Kia, posted a similar growth rate to Tesla. The South Korean automaker was a relatively early player in the EV space, revealing the first Hyundai Ioniq in 2016.
In late 2022, several countries including South Korea expressed their disapproval of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which withdrew tax credits on EVs not produced within the United States.
Hyundai is currently building a $5.5 billion EV factory in the state of Georgia, but this facility will not become operational until 2025. In the meantime, South Korea has revised its own EV subsidy program to favor domestic brands.
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