Proving once again that 2022 was a tough year for new car sales, just one of the ten best-selling vehicles in America (in terms of overall sales) actually improved its results over the previous year.
The Tesla Model Y was the only model among the 10 best-selling vehicles in 2022 that managed to deliver more vehicles in that year, than it did in 2021. But it was quite an increase. Tesla managed to move nearly 40 percent more Model Ys over the last 12 months, than it did the year before, according to data compiled by Goodcarbadcar.
That stunning performance meant that buyers bought more Model Ys in 2022 than they did Toyota Corollas, Ford Explorers, Nissan Rogues, or Honda Civics. Thanks to its stunning gains, the Tesla went from America’s 19th-best-selling vehicle in 2021 (161,527 total sales) to the eighth-best in 2022 (225,799).
All of the other 10 best-selling vehicles (Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado, Ram pickup family, Toyota RAV4, Toyota Camry, GMC Sierra, Honda CR-V, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and the Toyota Highlander) saw sales drop between 1.6 and 34 percent.
Read: The Biggest Sales Winners And Losers Of 2022
Among them, the Honda CR-V was the biggest loser of 2022, with sales dropping from 361,271 to 238,155, or 34 percent, sending it down from the fifth to the seventh-best-selling vehicle in America. Overall, however, the Toyota Land Cruiser was the model whose sales fell the hardest. They went from 3,711 in 2021 to just 48 in 2022, marking a 98.7 percent drop.
The model that gained the most sales in 2022, meanwhile, was the Ioniq 5, of which Hyundai apparently managed to sell 153 in 2021, all of which were sold in December of that year. That wasn’t a hard total to beat in 2022, as the Korean automaker sold 14,920 percent more, or 22,982 in all.
Indeed, of the 10 most-improved vehicles of 2022, by sales, six were all electric vehicles. The Audi e-tron Sportback (+472 percent), the Tesla Model S (+683 percent), the Audi Q4 e-tron Sportback (+3,061 percent), the Audi Q4 e-tron (+5,624 percent), the Volvo C40 (+8,900 percent), and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 all had rapidly accelerating sales in the year that just ended.
That’s good new for fans of EVs, and there’s good news for enthusiasts, too, because the second-most improved car of 2022 was the Toyota GR86. There were apparently 10,905 percent more customers for the Japanese automaker’s sports car in 2022 (11,996) than there were in 2021 (109).
In terms of overall numbers, though, the Detroit three’s full-size pickups still reigned supreme. The top three sellers were the Ford F-Series (653,957), the Chevrolet Silverado (520,936), and the Ram pickup family (468,344), with the GMC Sierra (241,521) coming in sixth-place overall, helping to propel General Motors into the top spot in terms of overall pickup sales.
Despite still dominating sales charts, all four had worse performances in 2022 than they did in 2021. With EVs on the rise, it seems that Detroit’s bet on electric pickups is very well-timed.