World Full Year 2017: Discover the Top 1200 best-selling cars in the world

April 23, 2018
Matt Gasnier

The Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car in the world for the 13th straight year.

* See the Top 1200 best-selling models in the world by clicking on the title *

Consult 57 years worth of Worldwide Historical Data here

Our exclusive Full Year worldwide models ranking is here for 2017. This is the most complete worldwide ranking published online, taking into account official sales data from 140 markets. If you came across an earlier 2017 worldwide models ranking published anywhere else online, rest assured that whatever you saw was incomplete as only BSCB has access to complete new car sales data covering the entire planet. Note that a complete ranking by manufacturer will also be published once official production data has been released by OICA. We like to keep our data official here at BSCB, and avoid as much as we can rushed estimates that lead to gaping holes and inconsistencies in the data.

The Ford F-Series posts its highest-ever annual worldwide volume at 1.082 million.

As always, to ensure our calculations are transparent, complete notes are included in the table so it is clear what variants, generations and rebadges are included for each nameplate, as often a car can be sold under various names and/or brands depending on the region of the world. The aim is to make it easier to gauge what really are the best-selling cars in the world in 2017. If a nameplate you are expecting doesn’t come up, look it up by searching the page and it will lead you straight to it on the table, either as a main nameplate in the ranking or as a rebadge. This ranking was compiled with the help of Austin Rutherford.

The Toyota Corolla was the best-selling car in the world from as early as 1974.

For the 13th consecutive year, the Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car in the world despite a slight decline at -4% to 1.439 million units excluding the Japanese Corolla. This figure includes the Auris/Corolla iM hatch, but even without, the Corolla would still comfortably be in the lead at 1.283 million sales. The Corolla reaps the result of consistently strong performances in the US and China where it is also sold as the Levin. In second place, the Ford F-Series manages a little exploit: despite only being widely available in North America – Middle-East and China volumes remain tiny, it sells over one million unit in 2017 at 1.082m. According to BSCB records, this is the F-Series’ highest every worldwide volume, and only the second time in history after 2004 it crosses the symbolic 1 million sales milestone worldwide. Fittingly, U.S. sales of the hero pickup truck are at their highest since 2005 and Canadian sales are at an all-time record.

The Nissan X-Trail is the best-selling SUV in the world for the 2nd year in a row.

Symbolic of the SUV wave that is engulfing absolutely all worldwide markets, the Nissan X-Trail gains a splendid 12% and two spots on 2016 to become the first-ever SUV to feature on the worldwide podium at #3 with a little over 880.000 unit sold, under the name Rogue in North America. But the SUV invasion doesn’t stop here: the Toyota RAV4 is up 13% and 5 spots to #5 at 813.000 sales, the Honda CR-V is up 7% and 4 ranks to #7 and 756.000 and the VW Tiguan soars 38% and 16 spots on last year to break into the worldwide Top 10 for the very first time at #10. That’s no less than four SUVs in the Top 10 this year, whereas there were none two years ago in 2015!

The Honda Civic surges 23% to #4.

The passenger car is far from dead however, as demonstrated by the Honda Civic’s stellar performance in 2017: up 23% and ten spots to shoot up to #4 worldwide, dislodging the VW Golf down 6% to #6 while the VW Polo is down 5% to #8 but the Nissan Sylphy is up 9% and four spots to #9, helped by a very solid performance in China. Just outside the Top 10, the Honda HR-V (-2%) goes from #2 to #5 in the SUV segment at #11, the Hyundai Elantra is hit full frontal by poor Chinese sales and dives 19% and 8 ranks to #12, with the VW Passat (-4%), Ford Focus (-9%), Hyundai Tucson (-12%), Toyota Camry (-4%) and VW Jetta (-7%) also in difficulty. Reversely the Chevrolet Silverado (+4%), Ford Kuga (+4%) and Ram Pickup (+3%) post positive results in the Top 20, supported by strong American performances.

The Haval H6 becomes the best-selling Chinese car in the world at #25.

The Haval H6 (#25) becomes the best-selling Chinese nameplate in the world despite sales down 12%, overtaking the Wuling Hongguang down 24% to #27 and stripped off its S3 crossover variant accounted for separately. The Renault Sandero (+24%) is up 19 spots to become the most popular French car in the world, now that we have separated its sales from the Logan. The Toyota Hilux, best-seller in an estimated 34 countries this year, is up three spots to #29 overall and the world’s best-selling mid-size pickup.

The Baojun 510 is the world’s best-selling new launch in 2017, but also in history.

Once again Chinese nameplates account for the overwhelming majority of new launches in 2017: no less than 91 (or 69%) of the 131 all new nameplates landing in this worldwide ranking for 2017 come from the largest market in the world. In 2016 they were “only” 50 out of 94, demonstrating if need be that the dynamism of the Chinese market is far from sputtering out. Quantity, but also quality: 7 out of the Top 10 new launches are Chinese, including the runaway leader: the Baojun 510 which became in January 2018 the best-selling new car ever introduced in the world, beating the previous record held for the past 40 years by the Ford Fairmont. It ranks #51 worldwide in 2017, and the only newcomer in the Top 200. It is followed by the VW Teramont (#249), Changan CS55 (#310), MG ZS (#341), FAW Besturn X40 (#343), Roewe i6 (#363), Hyundai Kona (#373), Zotye T700 (#380), Honda WR-V (#395) and WEY VV7 (#409). All the data is below the jump.

The VW Teramont is the 2nd most successful new launch in the world in 2017.