Best-selling cars around the world in 2022

World’s biggest hits
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
China
France
Germany
India
Indonesia
Italy
Russia
South Africa
Spain
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States

It’s been a difficult time for the car industry these past few years, with the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent supply chain issues wreaking havoc on global supply and demand.

Even so, 2022 proved to be a good year for several carmakers despite the many setbacks, with hundreds of thousands of units finding new homes around the world.

This is evidenced by a report from Motor1.com, which compiled last year’s vehicle sales data for a number of different countries to see exactly which models are currently the most popular in each market.

World’s biggest hits

Starting with Argentina, the most popular car to be found there is the Fiat Cronos, a stylish little sedan made by the Italian brand specifically for the Latin American market, and this was followed by the Peugeot 208 and Toyota Hilux in second and third place respectively.

Fiat is evidently a pretty popular brand, as it took the number one spot in several other countries, including Turkey with its Egea sedan, Brazil with its Strada bakkie, and even on its home turf in Italy where the small Panda hatch took home first prize.

Another country to favour small cars was India, where Maruti Suzuki remains a top brand with the Wagon R, Baleno, and Swift all being fan favourites.

Looking at Australia’s car scene, which is arguably the most similar to the one we have here in South Africa, it comes as no surprise that the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger brought in a one-two finish, while third place was taken by the Toyota Rav4 SUV.

In a similar vein, the United States had all three top spots taken by pickup trucks, with Ford’s F-Series proving to be the top dog over there followed by the Chevrolet Silverado and Ram pickup.

As for Europe, France and Germany demonstrated local loyalty with the top three sellers in each country all belonging to domestic brands.

In Germany’s case, Volkswagen came out as the clear winner with models like the Golf, Tiguan and T-Roc dominating the market, and it was a similar story in France where the Peugeot 208, Dacia Sandero and Renault Clio all proved to be a smash hit.

Spain and the UK, on the other hand, appear to be leaning toward the premium crossover and SUV segment with the Hyundai Tucson and Nissan Qashqai achieving the title of each country’s best-selling model respectively.

In China, the planet’s single largest car market, electric and hybrid models continue to be big sellers thanks to government incentives and a host of startups, with models like the BYD Song Plus and Wuling Hongguang Mini electric selling hundreds of thousands of units in a single year.

Below are the sales numbers for the best-performing model in key vehicle markets around the world: