Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: California Dreaming of Japan
After travelling the world, we come back to California today to check out which cars are the most popular here.
And I’ve got one word for you: Japan, Japan, Japan.
California too close for comfort? That’s ok because you can check out new car sales data for 176 additional countries and territories on my blog. Go on, you know you want to!
For the detail of what sells and what doesn’t in California, jump in below!
New car sales in California continue to outpace the US market overall, up a fantastic 12% year-on-year (vs. +8% overall in the US) both over the 2nd Quarter of 2013 at 447,054 registrations and year-to-date at 850,712 units. Like in the country as a whole, Californian sales are pulled up by light pick-up trucks (+17%) while domestic brands (+21%) fare better than the Japanese (+10%).
The Passenger Car market share in California is 63% vs. 51% overall in the US, domestic brands account for just 29% of sales vs. 46% in the US and Japanese brands are at 48% in California vs. 37% overall. The Toyota Prius remains the best-selling ‘model’ in the state at 18,326 sales and 4.1% over Q2 and 33,987 year-to-date, however this figure include both Prius C and Prius V which skews the results.
More by Matt Gasnier
Latest Car Reviews
Read moreLatest Product Reviews
Read moreRecent Comments
- Lorenzo If only it had an automatic, it could have been sold at any senior center in America.
- THX1136 Well, at least these won't cost over $210K like the Revology Mustangs.
- Daniel People are just going to believe what they *want* to believe to fit their narrative. Yes, those who drive more than 200 miles on a regular basis shouldn't get an EV as their main vehicle for now, but for around town and commuting they work great. Go with a lease for now to try one out, trickle charge at home and use the PlugShare app to find public chargers, many of which are free. And that's for those well-off, for those lower middle class, there are tons of rebates for the car AND having level 2 charger installed at home. I am a full-on auto enthusiast for over 35 years since an early teen and I have already been through the death of affordable sporty cars and the manual transmission. So I made sure to test drive them first, was very happy with the power, surprisingly good handling, and the paddle shifters for regen levels are nearly identical to me using the paddle shifters to engine brake in my last ICE car. I'll always love the great ICE vehicles too, but I'm actually saving money driving an even faster EV than my last car with free charging and relatively low electric rates in my area.
- HotRod The Tunnel Turn at the "Tricky Triangle" (Pocono Raceway). I got to push a Nascar-style Dodge Intrepid harder than I ever imagined. I was miserable with shingles at the time, making the experience that much more memorable. But for a handful of laps I didn't feel anything but pure adrenaline.
- Redapple2 That is one busy face. Ford: Too much.
Comments
Join the conversation
Toyota's Prius hybrids are riding for a fall. imo. I noticed in their very sweet little commercial that regular gas was selling for $4.19 USD per US gallon with the subtle implication that gas prices were rising. Nice fantasy for some, but in the real California world of right now, regular gas averages $3.81 USD per US gallon, and that price has fallen almost 30 cents per gallon over the past year. The average price for regular gas in the USA is $3.57 USD per US gallon. In Texas, recently I have been paying $3.30 USD per US gallon. The main cause, imo, is greatly increased US crude oil and NGL production from an entirely new mining technique colloquially referred to as "fracking". A sluggish European economy, and slower motor vehicle growth in China, India and elsewhere are probably factors as well. Crude oil production in Texas has exploded from 1 mmbbl/d to 2.5 mmbbl/d over the past 18-24 months. Bakken shale production in North Dakota has gone from almost zero to 0.8 mmbbl/d over the same period. Both are still headed straight north with no end in sight unless crude oil prices fall considerably. To put this in perspective, global crude oil production is around 65 mmbbl/d. The long-term potential from "fracking" is enormous. Oil and gas prices are headed nowhere but down for as far as the eye can see. Just how far down remains to be seen. In general, this ought to be very good for the motor vehicle industry, but bets on the heavily subsidized hybrids and EV's don't look so hot.
My last trip to El Centro, two of every three vehicles was a Ford F150 or a Ram, with a few Silverados rounding out that two out of three. They weren't all 2013/2014 models though, that's the downside of observing what's on the street. Matt's using new car registrations statewide, the best way to spot the latest trends in new car sales. California IS a big state.