Toyota RAV4 topples Tesla Model Y as world’s best-selling car

The Toyota RAV4 has overtaken the Tesla Model Y as the world’s best-selling car according to new figures from JATO Dynamics automotive analyst Felipe Munoz.

According to Mr Munoz, the Toyota RAV4 – the second-best selling vehicle in Australia last year behind the Ford Ranger – outsold the Tesla Model Y globally by fewer than 3000 cars. 

Mr Munoz’s figures put the RAV4 at the top with 1,187,000 sales globally in 2024, an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year, ahead of the Model Y’s 1,185,000 sales, representing a 3 per cent sales drop. 

It’s a reverse of last year’s order which saw the Model Y on top with 1,223,000 sales and the RAV4 in second on 1,075,000. 

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As Mr Munoz points out, the 2024 result is impressive given the RAV4 is in the final year of the current generation, with a new model coming in 2026 including a plug-in hybrid RAV4 confirmed for Australian showrooms.

The RAV4 also fended off the updated Model Y, although Tesla did point to a pause in production between old and new Model Ys as impacting sales in both 2024 and early 2025. 

Tesla posted its first global sales decline in its history in 2024, and its deliveries fell by 16.8 per cent in Australia. 

The brand has recovered somewhat with its first increase recorded in May when it posted its highest sales in Australia in almost 12 months. 

Behind the lead duo was another Toyota, the Corolla Cross, with an 18 per cent jump to 859,000 sales, only 5000 ahead of the Honda CR-V.

Both were well ahead of the fifth-placed Toyota Corolla with 697,000 sales – though Mr Munoz cites only the Corolla sedan and related Levin sedan for this figure – with the Toyota HiLux next and then the Ford F-150.

Impressively, Chinese manufacturer BYD made in into the top ten, with its Qin sedan – not sold in Australia – moving up from 12th in 2023 to trail the Toyota Camry in eighth and Tesla Model 3 in ninth.

Mr Munoz said the sales figures are based on data for the 153 markets that cover 99 per cent of global new-car sales.

MORE: Tesla Model Y crowned world’s best-selling car in 2023