The Burrow
Jan 2, 2025
After surging onto the rankings at second place last year, Tesla has made gains in its pursuit of Toyota for most searched car brand – but Toyota is still on top, according to the latest study from Compare the Market.
This marks the seventh annual edition of the Most Searched Car Brands report. As car insurance experts, we crunched the Google Trends data for 2024 from 155 countries to find the number one car brands.
Read on to see the top car brands across the planet.
In 2023, Toyota was the number one brand in 64 countries – and that hasn’t changed this year. However, Tesla has risen from being the number one brand in 29 countries in 2023 to 34 in 2024, closing the gap on the Japanese auto giant.
Coming in at third once again was BMW, which also made gains – rising from being number one in 26 countries in 2023 to 30 in 2024.
There were improvements across the rest of the pack with Fiat, Hyundai, Nissan, Honda, Chevrolet, Mazda, Peugeot and Suzuki all improving, while Kia and Mercedes-Benz saw declines.
It was the most searched car brand in Nepal and Uzbekistan. It was the third-most searched brand in China after BMW and Toyota. Chinese electric cars have greatly increased in popularity, with BYD now manufacturing more vehicles than Tesla.1
The other brands will have to do something really special to replace Toyota as the most searched car brand online. Toyota has a great pedigree and reputation for reliability, with a wide range of models to suit buyers.
Toyota continues to do well across the world, but especially in Africa, Asia and parts of the Middle East and South America. In 2024, Toyota released a right-hand drive version of the mighty Tundra pick-up – a ute for Australians who felt the Toyota Hilux was just too small. Toyota also launched the fifth-generation Land Cruiser Prado (known as the Land Cruiser 250 in Japan), and expanded its BZ4x electric car to Australia this year.2,3,4
You can’t blame other brands for lack of trying. In October 2024 Tesla had a suite of concept reveals, teasing a new autonomous taxi the Cybercab, the art-deco styled autonomous Robovan, as well as a slick looking robot called Optimus.5
Tesla was the number one brand in a range of countries, including the USA and Canada, South Korea, Scandinavian countries, as well as other parts of Europe and some parts of Africa.
BMW, on the other hand, dominated Europe, some parts of the Middle East and was the number one car brand in China.
Compare the Market’s Executive General Manager of General Insurance, Adrian Taylor, notes that other brands are improving and closing the lead on Toyota.
“It’s not surprising to see Toyota still at the top multiple years running. Toyota is such a strong brand with a great reputation that they’ve maintained for years,” said Mr Taylor.
“However, it is interesting to see Tesla continue to be number one in specific countries and competing with brands that have long been strong in particular countries, like Ford in the USA and Volvo in Sweden. Many brands made gains in the ranking while Toyota held steady – perhaps one day Tesla might close the gap altogether.”
If you’re getting a new car for Christmas this year, or if upgrading to a new model is on your New Year’s resolutions list – whether it’s a Toyota, a Tesla, or something else – Taylor notes it’s important to consider car insurance no matter what kind of car you drive.
“Car insurance is a financial safety net that can cover you against a range of events, depending on the level of cover you take out. This means you could get financial compensation for damages, losses and other expenses if something happens to others – or if something happens to your car,” Mr Taylor said.
“All levels of car insurance cover damage you’re responsible for to other vehicles and property – but if you want to have coverage for your brand-new ride, Comprehensive covers your vehicle against collision damage, storms, thefts, fire and other events.”
Regardless of what your day-to-day car is, Taylor added it’s crucial you look at the limits, exclusions and policy details in the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD) before you buy.
“Not all policies are the same, and insurers may have differing levels of cover, terms, exclusions and more.”
Compare the Market used data from Google Trends to find the most searched car bands in 2024 across 155 countries, provided data was available.
Due to discrepancies in the way Google Trends classifies Tesla, Tesla does not appear in the Google Trends rankings for the vehicle brands category. To account for Tesla, we gathered keyword search volume for each country’s top three brands in Google Trends and Tesla.
In cases where Tesla had a higher search volume than another car brand, it replaced that brand in the top three and moved the existing brand down one placement.
Note that Google Trends results are subject to change, even historically, due to the way Google Trends samples data. Data for 2018 and 2019 was gathered between 21/05/2020 and 27/05/2020. Data for 2020 was collected on 04/01/2021 and 2021 data was collected on 01/12/2021. The data for 2022 was gathered on 01/12/2022, and data for 2023 was gathered on 01/12/2023. Google Trends and keyword search volume data for 2024 was gathered on 03/12/2024.
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