R.L. Polk has released its list of the top ten bestselling cars worldwide and Ford is happily sitting at the top of the list with the Ford Focus. It easily beat out the number two Toyota Corolla making its win free and clear.
According to Polk, there was a 16 percent increase in the number of Ford Focus registrations last year, helped in part by the opening of a new plant in China. That new plant let Ford sell more vehicles in what is the world’s largest car market.
The Ford Focus launched in China in March of last year and was the number one best-selling passenger car there for 2012. Sales for this year are off to a strong start and Ford has every intention of maintaining its momentum.
In addition to the Focus there were two more Ford vehicles in the top ten with the Fiesta and F-series placing 3rd and 6th on a list dominated by small cars.
1 Ford Focus 1,020,410
2 Toyota Corolla 872,774
3 Ford F-Series 785,630
4 Wuling Zhiguang 768,870
5 Toyota Camry 729,793
6 Ford Fiesta 723,130
7 VW Golf 699,148
8 Chevrolet Cruze 661,325
9 Honda Civic 651,159
10 Honda CR-V 624,982
Toyota and Honda both made a strong showing with two vehicles each making the list. They may improve their standings next year as Honda now has an updated Civic and Toyota will soon be selling an updated version of the Camry, long a favorite in the US market.
Although automakers like Toyota and Honda will continue to have strong contenders thanks to their popular and competitively priced small vehicles, American manufacturers are clearly making in-roads into this growing market.
*Addendum, April 10th*
Toyota’s VP of Corporate Communications, Mike Michels, has released the following statement disputing the R.L. Polk Data.
“Toyota sold 1.16 million Corolla vehicles globally in 2012 compared to 1.02 million Focus nameplate registrations recently attributed to R.L. Polk by Ford Motor Company. Corolla sedan alone sold 1.08 million. Corolla registrations attributed to Polk come up short by nearly 300,000 units. This discrepancy is glaring and we have requested clarification.”
R.L. Polk has yet to release a response.
Nicole Wakelin fell in love with cars as a teenager when she got to go for a ride in a Ferrari. It was red and it was fast and that was all that mattered. Game over. She considers things a bit more carefully now, but still has a weakness for fast, beautiful cars. Nicole also writes for NerdApproved and GeekMom.
