What is the best-selling car in the world?

The Tesla Model Y was the best-selling car of 2023, and the Toyota Corolla has been a top seller for a million years but, apart from those, which is the best-selling car these days?

Stick around, and we’ll tell you.

As we all know, the landscape is changing rapidly, with hybrid cars and electric vehicles (EVs) creeping into the charts more than ever.

But there’s still room for old faithful models such as the Toyota Corolla, as this list will tell you.

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The best-selling cars last year

Now that we’re in 2025, we can take stock of the year that has just passed and analyze the trends within the motoring industry with a bit of perspective.

As you’d expect, gains have been made by representatives of the EV class, with Tesla and BYD sneaking into the charts, but there’s a Japanese classic sitting at the top, proving to the upstarts that there’s life in the old dogs yet.

Toyota Corolla was the best-selling car of 2024

As of November 2024, the Toyota Corolla sat top of the bracket as the best-selling car of 2024.

That’s no real surprise, given the brand’s reputation for efficiency, build quality, and reliability.

Over a million Corolla models were reportedly sold last year, narrowly squeaking out the Tesla Model Y in second place, with 973,463.

Last year, the Tesla Model Y sat top of the list, a remarkable coup for what started as a startup just over a decade ago.

Toyota features again in third place, as with more than 925,000 sales of the RAV4.

It was followed by the Ford F-Series and the Honda CR-V to round out the top five.

What can we learn from all of this?

One of the key take-home messages from the sales figures towards the end of last year is that – as Bob Dylan famously sang – the times, they are a-changin’.

Gone are the days where the list would be exclusive ICE – internal combustion engine – cars, and the age of the EV and hybrid car is well and truly here.

After all, the Corolla itself is a hybrid.

Also featured on the list was the BYD Song, the biggest seller from the Chinese brand’s stable.

In the coming years, we’d expect to see more of the same, with fewer fossil fuel powered cars making the list, simply as more electric and hybrid cars are released, and the technology improves and becomes more widely affordable.

One thing we can be pretty sure of is that the traditional brands will have a plan for that, and will be there or thereabouts when the figures for 2025 come rolling out, regardless of the incursions from less-established

Whether the Corolla will retain the top spot, that’s really up to the public to decide.