Triumphant Return: The World’s Best-Selling Car of 2025 Revealed

Over the past year, Tesla repeatedly faced declining sales, particularly amid intensifying competition from China.

February 20, 2026 at 8:30 PM / News

The Tesla Model Y has once again confirmed its status as the world’s most popular vehicle, according to Focus2Move.

By the end of 2025, Model Y sales were down 9.3% year over year — but that decline wasn’t enough to cost it the top spot globally.

The sharpest drops were recorded in the United States (–15.8%) and Europe (–16.6%). In Asia, where Tesla posts its strongest sales numbers, the decline was much more modest at just 2.2%. As a result, the Model Y maintained a 1.2% share of the global auto market and remained the world’s best-selling vehicle.

Second place in the global rankings went to the Toyota RAV4. Its sales slipped by only 1.4%, and thanks to slight gains in the U.S. and Asia, it managed to overtake the Corolla.

The Toyota Corolla came in third, with sales down 9.2%. Fourth place went to the iconic American pickup, the Ford F-Series, which posted an 8.1% increase in sales.

Overall, the top 10 best-selling vehicles in the world for 2025 were:

Key Trends in the Global Auto Market

Analysts note that the global electric vehicle market continues to grow — but unevenly. In China, the government has begun gradually scaling back support for EVs in an effort to cool the ongoing price war. In Europe, policymakers appear less certain about fully phasing out gasoline and diesel vehicles. In the United States, experts even expect a slight decline in EV sales in 2026.

Sales of conventional hybrids and plug-in hybrids are growing faster than those of fully electric vehicles. That said, EV sales still increased by 12.4% in 2025, giving battery-electric vehicles a 17% share of the global market.

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