You’ll have heard plenty of stories recently about how Tesla is dominating EV sales around the world to the extent that in some regions, like Europe, the Model Y is the most popular vehicle regardless of engine type.
But a new study looking at the activity of people searching online for EVs in different countries shows some surprising differences in taste between nations. Gridserve pulled together a database of most searched-for EVs around the world that relies on data from 317 different vehicles and more than 200 countries, and while simple Google searches don’t necessarily equate to sales (we’ve all spent a fantasy $5 m on the Porsche configurator over the years, right?), the study does give us an insight into what EVs people desire the most.
We should preface our look at the data by saying that there are few real shocks when it comes to the overall top performer ranked by pure search volume. Tesla’s Model 3 takes first spot with 20 million hits, though some might be surprised to see that Kia’s EV6 (15.8 m) pushes ahead of the Model Y (13.9 m) and puts such clean air between itself and its Hyundai Ioniq 5 (12.7 m) cousin.
Related: Tesla Model Y Tops Monthly Sales In Europe For The 5th Time This Year
But it gets more interesting the deeper you dig, because while the Lexus RZ only ranked ninth in the overall search league table with 7.2 million hits, it was the most searched-for EV in 47 countries. Often, searchers favored cars that have some kind of local connection, such as the Indian-built Tata Nexon, which racked up over 2 million hits in India to become the country’s most search-for electric car. And Croatia’s Rimac Nevera snaffled the most searches in multiple Balkan countries.
Some countries don’t seem to care much for EVs at all: the most search-for EV in Iran, the BMW iX, generated just 10 clicks, and while the country does limit Google access to some websites, we don’t think EVs would be viewed as hostile Western content, so we’re not sure what happened there. But the results for China would certainly have been affected by the fact that Google is not the most popular search engine in the country. The study has the Tesla Model 3 as the most searched-for EV, though Elon Musk’s company was comprehensively outsold by China’s own BYD in real sales during 2022.
The study was also able to rank EV popularity by U.S. state using the same methods, but this time there was far less variation. While Montana and Wyoming spent more online time in 2022 lusting after the Rivan R1T than any other EV, Michigan fawned over the Cadillac Lyriq, Colorado, Washington and Utah dreamed of the Kia EV6 and Maine, Oregon and Vermont wanted an Ioniq 5, 41 other states only had eyes for the Tesla Model 3.