Best selling car in every major global car market

The biggest players come as no surprise, but there are a few unlikely entries in the top 30 best-selling cars from the largest new car markets. Here are the 30 countries with the largest new cars sales in 2020, ranked in ascending order. The data comes from Best Selling Cars:

Given total new car sales in Iraq in 2020 came to 63,692, the country’s new car sales fell by 18.4% in 2020. The Kia Sorento matched this drop to be the best-selling passenger car ahead of the Hyundai Tuscon. However, the biggest selling vehicle was the Kia Frontier small truck, with almost double the number of Sorento sales and an increased market share in 2020.

Kia’s strength in the Iraqi market is underlined by three of its models, the Frontier, Sorento and Sportage, all ranking in the top 10. Toyota also scores three top 10 sellers

Morocco makes it in to the top 30 for 2020 despite its best-selling car recording half as many sales as the previous number 30 occupant in 2019. This is due to the worldwide downturn in car sales in almost every country, so the Dacia Dokker makes the grade with 7.8% of Morocco’s 133,267 new car sales total.

Dacia was also the top brand in Morocco, cementing its position from the previous year. Its sales in 2020 were more than double those of its nearest rival, Renault, and accounted for a 28.6% overall market share for Dacia compared to 12.4% for its French parent company. Dacia produces over 400,000 cars a year in Morocco.

The Netherlands felt less impact from the global pandemic in its new car market than many of its neighbours, with sales down by 20% overall compared to 2019. Some of this is down to a late surge in EV registrations as car companies sought to reduce their average carbon dioxide emissions for the year. This is why the Volkswagen ID.3 was the best-seller in December, but for the whole year it was the Kia Niro that won out.

Total new car sales of 356,051 in the Netherlands are underpinned by the ongoing popularity of small cars, with the Niro and ID3, followed by the Hyundai Kona, VW Polo and Volvo XC40 completing the top five best-sellers for the year.

2020 was a seminal year in Sweden as it marked the first time in the country’s new car sales history when all three top places were filled by Volvo. The market may be relatively small with total sales of 291,664, but the S/V60 range occupied first place, while second spot went to the XC60 and the XC40 took the third step on the podium.

Volkswagen was next most successful, with fourth and fifth places going to the Golf and Passat, respectively. However, Volvo was there again in sixth with the S/V90 range. Little surprise then that Volvo ended the year in number one slot with 18.1% of Sweden’s 2020 new car market. And while Volvo may seem as Swedish as Abba, it is owned today by a Chinese company, Geely, and the S60 and V60 models sold in Sweden are produced in South Carolina in the US.

For the third year in a row, the Skoda Octavia has proved the most popular car in Poland, beating off challenges from Toyota’s Corolla and Yaris models in second and third spots, respectively. Sales for the Octavia dipped by 8.4% in 2020, which was much less than the market-wide 22.9% contraction to 428,377 sales overall.

Volkswagen retained its third place in the brand rankings, but its lead over Kia and Renault is dwindling year-on-year as these two ascending makes close the gap.

Argentina rises one place in this list for its 2020 sales, though the Toyota Hilux remains its best-selling model. This one step further up the rankings comes even as new car sales fell to 342,474 in 2020, a plunge of 25.5% from 2019.

The Hilux kept its 5.6% market share and stayed on top of the sales chart for the third year in a row. However, it’s Volkswagen that enjoys the most sales overall in Argentina, with 16.7% market share compared to Toyota’s 12.7% in second place. This is achieved courtesy of three VWs, the Gol, Amarok and T-Cross, in the top 10 best sellers list.

While most countries’ new car sales were reeling from Covid-19 implications, Egypt’s sales soared to 219,687 thanks to new free trade agreements that offered welcome tax exemptions. As a consequence, the best-seller in Egypt was the Chevrolet T-Series pick-up that’s ideally suited to the often rough roads of the country.

The best-selling passenger car was the Toyota Corolla, which gained market share of 6.6% from 2019’s 4.4%. The Corolla also knocked the Nissan Sunny from second place in 2019 into third spot for 2020.

The new car market in Pakistan fell by a third in 2020 compared to 2019, but that didn’t stop the Suzuki Alto from toppling the Toyota Corolla from top sales spot. Suzuki did this in some style, too, with the Alto notching up 18.8% market share with 23,479 sales, where the Toyota recorded 15.1% and 18,825 sales.

It’s a mark of how dominant the top three brands of Suzuki, Toyota and Honda are that they were the only ones to register five figure sales. Hyundai in fourth place managed 2098 sales in 2020 from a market total of 124,629 new car registrations.

Biggest news of Spain’s 2020 new car market was that the Moroccan-built Dacia Sandero scooped the best-selling model trophy, toppling the indigenous Seat Leon from its 2019 throne. While that will come as a shock to Seat, it’s not surprising when the Spanish firm saw sales drop by almost 40% in its home market in 2020 compared to 2019.

This was set against a backdrop of Spanish new car registrations of 851,211, a fall of 32.3% year-on-year, so Seat performed worse than the general market. However, Seat retains the biggest share of its home market with 8% of total sales, just ahead of Volkswagen’s 7.8% and Peugeot on 7.7%.

Regardless of the fact the Philippines new car market was down by 40.3% to 248,171 in 2020 compared to 2019, Toyota was the runaway leader in sales. With four of the five best sellers in this country, and six out of the top 10, Toyota took a 40 per cent slice of the new car market.

Reflecting Toyota’s bullish performance in the Philippines, the best-selling Vios extended its market share from 2019’s 8.1% to 10.2%. The second and third placed Hilux and Wigo also improved on their share year-on-year.

The Saudi Arabian new car market fell by 14.9% in 2020, which is less of a drop than many other countries. An unusual factor explains why sales in Saudi Arabia were stronger than many others and it’s the ongoing arrival of women buyers, who were legally allowed to drive for the first time in 2018. With more demand, sales have held up better than expected, with 457,148 new cars registered there in 2020.

The Hyundai Elantra just pipped the Toyota Camry as the best-selling car in 2020 in Saudi Arabia. With 26,853 sales, the Elantra was only 450 sales up on its direct rival, though Toyota held on to it position as the number one brand in this country.

Toyota may have won the battle, but Hyundai won the new car sales war in Vietnam in 2020. The Toyota Vios was the most popular single model, accounting for 30,251 sales of the country’s total 296,634 registrations. That gives the Vios a 7.5% market share.

However, Hyundais occupy the second and third spots in the top 10 best sellers, as well ninth place. That’s enough to push the Korean maker to the top of the overall sales league with 20.3% of all sales in Vietnam in 2020 compared to 17.6% for Toyota.

After 2019’s appearance of South Africa in the top 30 of best-selling countries, it consolidates its position with anther 18th place ranking in 2020. New car sales were down in 2020 to 380,449, a drop of 29.1% from 2019’s figure, but the top-selling Toyota Hilux managed to grow its market share to 8.2% from the previous year’s 7.6%.

Pick-ups all did well in the South African market in 2020, with the third-placed Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max in fifth spot both enlarging their share of the new car sector. On the other hand, the Volkswagen Vivo that’s the country’s second best-selling car lost some of its share, falling to 5.2 per cent in 2020 from the previous year’s 5.5 per cent.

The Honda Brio has moved up from second place in 2019 to become 2020’s best seller in Indonesia. Suzuki’s Pikap is second and the Toyota Avanza third, which shows small, simple cars are the preferred choice of buyers in this market.

It may seem like a modest change of leader in this country, but Toyota has been the dominant brand for many years. This change was partly brought about by a remarkable 48.3% drop in new car sales to 532,027 in Indonesia in 2021, though Toyota did hang on as the best-selling make overall in the country.

Sales were down in Australia in 2020 when compared with 2019’s numbers, but the market shrank by much less than most other developed countries. This was mostly due to Australia’s low levels of Covid infections that meant consumer confidence was higher.

The result of this is the Australian new car market declined 13.7% in 2020 compared to 2019, with a total of 916,968 registrations in 2020. Towards the end of the year, sales were bouncing back strongly, with Toyota and its Hilux both keeping their number one footings from the previous year.

The UK endured one of the largest yearly sales drops of any country, with 2020’s new car registrations tumbling by 29.4% compared to 2019. A total of 1,631,064 were delivered to UK buyers in 2020, with fleet sales falling further than private sales due to a mix of lockdown and furlough measures.

Petrol cars remain the biggest sellers, with 55.4% of the UK market, while battery electric cars ended the year with a 6.6% market share. The most popular car in the UK was the Ford Fiesta, but with reduced sales. Ford also remained the best-selling brand, with Volkswagen second place and BMW in third.

Mexico’s new car sales dropped by more than a quarter compared to 2019’s. This meant total sales in Mexico of 949,121, down by 28% from the previous year’s 1,317,927. It was a hard hit for many car makers, though Nissan remained at the top of the manufacturers’ chart.

Nissan also won in the model sales battle with its versa, which marked five years as the favourite car of Mexican buyers. It even managed to increase its market share during 2020, up from 6.6% the year before to 7.2% in 2020.

Turkey witnessed an almost Phoenix-like recovery in new car sales in 2020 despite the global pandemic. Annual sales were up by an amazing 61.3% in 2020 next to 2019’s figures, with a total of 772,788 registrations in ’20. This is largely attributed by the country’s recovery from economic difficulties in recent years.

Fiat was the biggest benefactor, with its sales up 80.1% on 2019’s and the locally-produced Egea (sold as the Tipo in most other markets) topping the new car sales chart yet again. Fiat enjoyed a 17.8% market share in Turkey in 2020, ahead of Renault in second spot and Ford in third place.

France had annual sales of 1,650,188 in 2020. That was 25.5% down on the previous year and was the lowest yearly sales total since 1975 in the country. By the end of the year, electric vehicles of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery cars accounted for 350,000 sales in France thanks to government incentives that made them the only big risers in terms of total sales.

Of France’s dominant three domestic car makers, Citroën suffered the biggest drop in market share, falling by 30.8% on 2019’s figures. This was still sufficient for Citroën to hold third spot behind Peugeot in second and Renault in first. However, Peugeot will take solace from its 208 being France’s best-selling new car in 2020.

Fiat and its Panda both held on to their top spots in Italy in 2020 despite the country’s new car market contracting by a hefty 27.7% to 1,393,556 in 2020 compared to 2019’s figure. It’s the lowest annual sales for Italy since 2014.

Due to the decline in sales overall, Fiat recorded its lowest Italian sales total since 1961, though it managed to increase it market share very slightly in 2020. The only respite for Fiat is the Panda sold almost as many units on its own as second-placed Volkswagen managed to shift of all its models combined.

Lada commanded a sizeable 21.5% of the Russian market in 2020, but like most of its rivals it was down on the previous year. This reflected the overall new car market in Russia, which fell to 1,598,825 during 2020 and continued the downward trend in this country that has been going on since 2017.

One of the few car companies to enjoy growth in Russia was Skoda, along with some Chinese brands such as Haval, Geely and Chery. However, the biggest players behind Lada remain Kia in second place and Hyundai in third position.

Canada’s new car market may have shrunk to 19.7% in 2020 compared to 2019’s results, but that didn’t stop Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Hyundai-Kia from increasing their market share. This makes these four even more dominant in the Canadian sales charts, which totalled 1,560,840 new car sales at the end of 2020.

Only Cadillac managed to increase its sales year-on-year, but the best seller of the bunch remained the Ford F-Series. It continues its unstoppable appeal to Canadians and 2020 was its 55th unbroken year as the country’s favourite new vehicle.

Brazilians bought a total of 1,950,889 new cars in 2020 and the Chevrolet Onix remained their preferred choice in 2020. Its position was unaffected even by a significant contraction of 26.6% in new sales in 2020.

The year started well in Brazil, with sales up in February year-on-year, but they soon stalled with the global pandemic. Chevrolet holds on to its top spot in the manufacturer chart, but the big news is Jeep limited its loses more than most to put itself in the top 10 in Brazil.

No shocks here that Germany continues to hold Volkswagen and the Golf dearest to their hearts and wallets. Not only did the Golf top the new car sales chart in 2020 that recorded a total of 2,917,678 sales, the other two podium positions were filled by Wolfsburg products, with the Passat second and the Tiguan third. The Golf’s performance was helped by a new generation model going on sale (pictured), together with some nice discounts to shift the older model also pushing up the overall sales number.

The Passat even managed to grow its market share by 2.7% in a German market that was down 19.1% overall in 2020 compared to 2019. Perhaps more a sign of the times is VW’s ID.3 replaced the Tiguan in third spot in the December sales figures.

Against a backdrop of plunging sales elsewhere, South Korea is one of the very few countries to enjoy increased new car sales in 2020. Its rapid response to the pandemic takes much of the credit for maintaining consumer confidence, which saw 1,874,630 new cars find homes in 2020.

The best of the sales went to the Hyundai Grandeur, which assisted the company in keeping itself at the head of the manufacturer chart despite a 1.1% drop in sales compared to 2019. Kia was up by 6.3% in second place and Genesis increased sales by 5.8% to take third spot.

In 2020, 4,598,615 new cars were sold in Japan, making it one of the largest markets in the world for new cars. This was in the face of an 11.5% drop in sales in 2020 compared to the previous year. Toyota proved the best at limiting its losses in the market, with a loss of sales share at 6% whereas Honda shed 14.3% of sales in 2020.

The Toyota Yaris did its bit to put Toyota at the top of the sales chart, dethroning the Honda N-Box. This also contributed to Honda slipping to third in the overall 2020 Japanese ranking, with Suzuki in second place.

Toyota remains the biggest force in new car sales in Thailand with a chunky 30.8% market share. Yet it’s the locally produced Isuzu D-Max that is the most popular new car in the country and accounts for one in five of all registrations in 2020. That’s some way ahead of the second-placed Toyota Hilux with 16.4% of sales.

Overall sales in Thailand were down 21.4% in 2020, coming in at 792,146. The good news for car brands in this country is there was a strong sales recovery at the end of 2020 that has continued into 2021.

India was the fifth biggest new car market in 2020 with a total of 2,428,327. Domestic manufacturer Maruti accounted for a huge slice of that with a sales share of exactly half to all new cars sold in India. It helped that Maruti occupies the top six places in the 2020 sales chart and seven out of the top 10, with the Swift taking pole position.

That’s a slight fall for Maruti compared to 2019, but in a market that fell by 19.1% compared to 2019, the company did will to lose relatively little. The biggest gains in 2020 were for Tata Motors, up 10.8% on 2019, and Kia with an impressive 210.2% increase.

The Nissan Sylphy takes the best-selling spot in China, unseating the Toyota Corolla, with a total of 542,725 sales. That’s less than the Corolla managed in 2019, but China like almost every other country experienced a decline in new car sales during 2020. The Corolla also suffered the ignominy of slipping to fourth in the rankings, behind the Volkswagen Lavida and Haval H6 respectively.

Car sales in China dipped by 1.9% across 2020, totalling 20,178,000, plus a further 5.1 million commercial vehicle sales to make it the biggest market overall in the world by some margin.

The US remains the second largest new car market in the world with 14,665,787 sales in 2020 and, unsurprisingly, the Ford F-Series tops the sales chart for the 39th year straight. Even losing 100,000 F-Series sales compared to 2019 and shedding market share to both Toyota and Chevrolet, Ford remains the leader in the US.

However, Ford will be casting an eye at its two nearest rivals as they both featured more than one model in the US top 10 sellers while Ford is reliant solely on the F-Series in the ten.