U.S. car demand by segment in June 2022
Crossovers are Americans’ favorite type of passenger vehicle. This category accounts for over 45 percent of automobile sales in the United States as of June 2022. The most popular models include Honda’s CR-V, Nissan’s Rogue, and Toyota’s RAV4. In the first quarter of 2022, U.S. auto buyers bought just under 101,200 units of Toyota’s RAV4 model, making it the best-selling vehicle in this category.
Toyota is the market leader
The RAV4 was one of the very first specimens of its kind, as production of this model began in 1994. Toyota was the second most valuable automotive manufacturer worldwide in 2022, with a brand value of just over 33.1 billion dollars. It followed Tesla, which was first in the ranking with a gap of over 42 billion dollars compared to the runner-up. Toyota’s net revenue rose to 31.4 trillion Japanese yen in 2022 (around 257 billion U.S. dollars as of March 2022 exchange rates), a visible growth of over 15 percent compared to 2021, despite the manufacturer being impacted by the global automotive chip shortage.
Crossovers benefit from the shift away from sedans
Crossover SUVs (sport utility vehicles) combine the fuel efficiency levels of compact and midsized cars and the higher seating positions of light trucks. They gained in popularity when fuel prices were low and, consequently, automakers increased production volumes and model additions of this vehicle type. Between 2014 and 2021, U.S. car sales fell from over 7.7 million to around 3.34 million units. Concurrently, light truck sales increased from 8.7 million units in 2014 to close to 11.6 million units in 2021. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vehicle demand led to a 9.6 percent drop in light truck sales in 2020. This drop in vehicle sales impacted countries across the globe. In 2020, Germany recorded a loss of over 140,000 sales of SUVs compared to 2019, whereas China’s new SUV registrations remained stable between the two years.
Toyota is the market leader
The RAV4 was one of the very first specimens of its kind, as production of this model began in 1994. Toyota was the second most valuable automotive manufacturer worldwide in 2022, with a brand value of just over 33.1 billion dollars. It followed Tesla, which was first in the ranking with a gap of over 42 billion dollars compared to the runner-up. Toyota’s net revenue rose to 31.4 trillion Japanese yen in 2022 (around 257 billion U.S. dollars as of March 2022 exchange rates), a visible growth of over 15 percent compared to 2021, despite the manufacturer being impacted by the global automotive chip shortage.
Crossovers benefit from the shift away from sedans
Crossover SUVs (sport utility vehicles) combine the fuel efficiency levels of compact and midsized cars and the higher seating positions of light trucks. They gained in popularity when fuel prices were low and, consequently, automakers increased production volumes and model additions of this vehicle type. Between 2014 and 2021, U.S. car sales fell from over 7.7 million to around 3.34 million units. Concurrently, light truck sales increased from 8.7 million units in 2014 to close to 11.6 million units in 2021. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vehicle demand led to a 9.6 percent drop in light truck sales in 2020. This drop in vehicle sales impacted countries across the globe. In 2020, Germany recorded a loss of over 140,000 sales of SUVs compared to 2019, whereas China’s new SUV registrations remained stable between the two years.
