The composition of the ten largest automobile manufacturers in the world will not have changed in 2025, but their order will: the two largest Chinese manufacturers will move up the list.
According to the latest financial filings from all of the world’s leading automakers, BYD has moved above Ford to sixth place, while Geely’s sales have increased dramatically, moving the company from tenth to eighth place.
| Pursue | Sales 2025 | Change | Change of position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota Motor Company | 11.21 million | +4.8% | – |
| Volkswagen Group | 8.68 million | -0.5% | – |
| Hyundai Kia | 7.27 million | +0.8% | – |
| General Motors | 6.18 million | +3.0% | – |
| Stellar | 5.48 million | +1.3% | – |
| BYD | 4.60 million | +7.7% | +1 |
| ford | 4.40 million | -2.0% | -1 |
| Geely Group | 4.12 million | +23.4% | +2 |
| Honda | 3.46 million | -9.2% | -1 |
| Nissan | 3.21 million | -5.6% | -1 |
As we recently reported, Toyota remained at the top for the sixth consecutive year and extended its lead over Volkswagen Group. You can read more about their brand evolution, sales by region and their mix of combustion and electric powertrains in our previous article.
In the third, Hyundai Kia Sales rose slightly: the Hyundai and Genesis brands rose by 0.1 percent to 4,138,389 units. Of these, 961,812 had electrified drives, an increase of 27 percent compared to 2024. The two brands sold a total of 634,990 hybrid vehicles and 275,669 electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, Kia rose by 1.5 percent to 3,135,873 vehicles. Sales of electric vehicles also grew at the sister brand: Hybrid sales rose by 23.7 percent to 454,000 and electric vehicle sales by 18.9 percent to 238,000.
At General MotorsThe company gained ground in North America and increased U.S. sales by 5.5 percent to 2,853,000. The General finally halted its sales decline in China, where it rose 2.5 percent to 2,418,000.
However, GM had to accept setbacks in South America: In Brazil, the numbers fell by 14.1 percent to 276,000 units.
Stellar The company lost ground in Europe with 2,491,000 vehicles (down 3.3 percent), but was able to make up for this with increasing sales in North America (up 2.8 percent to 1,472,000), the Middle East and Africa (up 7.1 percent to 453,000) and South America (up 9.6 percent to 1,000,000).
Volumes in China, India and Asia Pacific remained stable at a meager 61,000 vehicles, while Maserati fell an alarming 31.0 percent to 7,800.
Accordingly Bloombergover three quarters of the cars sold BYD were in its home country of China, where it consolidated its lead over Volkswagen as the country’s largest automaker with 3.1 million sales.
Exports to Europe, Latin America and Asia accounted for 1.05 million sales.
A presentation by ford shows the Ford Blue passenger car division sold 2,728,000 mostly hybrid and combustion engine cars and utes, down 4.7 percent. The Ford Pro division, which is responsible for vans and heavy commercial vehicles, sold 1,488,000 vehicles, down 1.0 percent.
In addition, the company sold 178,000 electric vehicles through its Model E division, with sales increasing 69.5 percent largely thanks to European buyers.
Ford says it sold 280,000 electric vehicles wholesale last year, an increase of 77.2 percent. Part of the discrepancy can be attributed to the fact that the Blue, Model e and Pro divisions only exist in Europe and North America. For all other regions, including Australia and China, all sales, including those of commercial vehicles and electric vehicles, go through the Ford Blue division.
The spaciousness Geely Group reported a 23.4 percent jump in sales to 4,116,321, with the number of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles rising 58 percent to 2,293,099.
Unfortunately, the numbers for the core Geely brand were not released, but we do know that Lynk & Co was up 23 percent to 350,495 units, Zeekr was up 0.9 percent to 224,133 units and Proton was up 7.0 percent to 162,601 units.
Volvo Cars sold 710,042 cars last year, a decline of 7.0 percent. Electrified models once again accounted for 46 percent of Volvo sales, with 323,294 models sold in 2024.
Honda recorded declines in all sales regions with one exception. Domestic sales fell by 4.3 percent to 601,000 and in Europe by 11.0 percent to 89,000.
The key North American market fell 5.6 percent to 1,594,000 units, while Asia (including China but excluding Japan) saw an alarming 18.5 percent decline to 1,017,000.
The rest of the world was the only sales group to see an increase, rising 7.4 percent to 159,000.
The big financial problems Nissan are known, and sales fell in all regions except North America, where there was a 2.2 percent increase to 1,313,000.
There were sharp declines at Nissan in China (minus 11.7 percent to 657,000) and in Japan (minus 15.4 percent to 402,000). Europe and Britain fell 7.0 percent to 330,000, while the rest of the world fell 6.3 percent to 505,000.
