California (USA) Full Year 2012: Toyota Prius new leader

Toyota Prius C 

* See the Top 15 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

We are focusing today on the USA’s biggest market, California, up a fantastic 25% year-on-year in 2012 to 1,617,103 registrations, to be compared to +13% in the USA overall. This means that if California was a country, it would be the 10th biggest new car market worldwide, behind Canada (1.68m) and passing South Korea (1.5m) and Italy (1.4m) in the process. 2012 will remain a very important year for the Californian new car market: the year a hybrid car topped the models ranking for the first time. Toyota doesn’t separate sales of the different models in the Prius family in California and as a result the Prius is now the most popular car in the State, up a gargantuan 78% on 2011 to 60,688 sales for an excellent 3.8% market share.

Last year’s leader, the Honda Civic, is down to #2 even though it gains a huge 52% year-on-year to 57,124 units and 3.5%. The Toyota Camry rounds up the podium again with 50,250 sales and 3.1%, up 38% on 2011, while the Honda Accord is down 2 spots to #4 in spite of sales up a very respectable 35% year-on-year to 49,420. Below the Toyota Corolla at #5, the Honda CR-V is up 33% and one rank to #6, meaning the entire Top 6 is composed of Toyotas and Hondas…

In fact, domestic brands only represent 29.7% of overall sales in California vs. 44.5% in the USA overall… There are only two domestic models in the Californian Top 15 this year: the Ford F-Series at #7 with 25,434 units and 1.6% share and the Chevrolet Silverado at #15 with 17,804 units and 1.1%. Notice also the Nissan Altima up 26% to #8 and the Hyundai Sonata up 30% to #9.

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The Toyota Prius is one of the most popular cars for California college students and businessmen.

Full Year 2012 Top 15 models Ranking Table below.