Last week, we presented sales data that initially indicated the Tesla Model Y as the world’s best-selling vehicle in 2023. However, Toyota has now finished tallying its own numbers, and it appears that the Corolla may have taken the top position. Well, kind of, as this all depends on how you interpret the data, so let’s delve deeper into the story to provide clarity.
The original report was based on figures gathered by Jato Dynamics, which openly admitted that Toyota’s worldwide sales reports had not yet been confirmed. However, it asserted that enough global markets had reported sales to give the Tesla Model Y a nearly unassailable lead.
Read: Toyota Chief Believes EVs Can Only Capture 30% Of Future Auto Market
It turns out it wasn’t completely unassailable for Toyota. Now that the company has finished tallying up its global sales count, a company spokesperson informed Carscoops that it officially sold “approximately 944,000 RAV4s and 1.64 million Corollas globally in 2023″.
While that’s fewer RAV4s than had been reported last week, it’s many more Corollas than expected. With that, the compact car moves ahead of the Model Y, of which Tesla sold 1.23 million units globally, per Jato Dynamics.
So, is that the final verdict? Not so fast.
Toyota offers various Corolla models or Corolla-based vehicles worldwide, including different variations for China and the Corolla Cross that’s available in North America as well. To provide clarity, we reached out to Toyota to specify which models were included in that total sales number.
“This includes all Corolla nameplates globally, Corolla SDN, X (Corolla Cross in US), Hatchback (Auris), Wagon, Fielder (JPN), and GR Corolla, but excludes Levin (China),” a Toyota spokesperson told us.
As you can tell, there is some ambiguity here because Toyota’s count encompasses both different variants (compact car in sedan, wagon and hatchback bodystyles, as well as the Cross) and various nameplates of the same vehicle in certain markets.
If Toyota includes the Cross in its count, then why shouldn’t we also consider both the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y as one, especially since they are essentially two versions of the same car that many people have a hard time telling apart from certain angles? According to Tesla’s own data, these two models collectively sold 1,739,707 units worldwide in 2023.
If we were to follow this logic, then the Model 3 and Y combined outsold the extended Corolla family by around 100,000 units worldwide in 2023 (1.74 million for Tesla vs. 1.64 million for Toyota).
Whichever way you cut it, that’s a remarkable achievement for the American EV company, which either had the best-selling model family or the second-best selling nameplate overall, not to mention the best-selling crossover on earth in 2023.
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That impressive result comes thanks to a 63 percent increase in sales year-over-year. The Model Y was also central in Tesla remaining the largest EV manufacturer on earth, ahead of BYD, whose sale momentum makes it likely to beat the American company in 2024.
Meanwhile, the success of the Corolla will likely be viewed as just another confirmation that Toyota’s slow approach to EV adoption certainly has its merits. The Japanese company has been bragging about the success of its internal combustion and hybrid vehicles, following a slow-down in growth in global EV sales. The unexpected sales hesitation has prompted investors to back out of the EV market, and some automakers to slow their EV development plans significantly.
Additional reporting John Halas
