America's BEST selling cars

Five charts to start your day

Good morning – here are your five chart for the day.

I just spent two weeks driving around Florida with my family, and the American love affair with massive vehicles suddenly made perfect sense. The parking spaces are enormous, petrol costs next to nothing to fill up even the biggest tank, and you simply can't get anywhere without driving. The country is so vast and spread out that cars aren't a luxury; they're essential infrastructure.

What struck me most wasn't just the size of these vehicles, but how they've completely taken over. Driving through Florida, I understood why. When your daily commute might be 50 miles and your weekend trip 200, you want comfort, space, and presence. It's not about transportation anymore; it's about lifestyle. Americans have turned their vehicles into mobile living rooms, and manufacturers have responded by making them bigger, more luxurious, and yes, more expensive. Even Tesla gets it – if you want to sell cars in America, make them big. The sedan is dying not because of poor public transport or urban planning, but because Americans have decided that bigger really is better when you're crossing a continent-sized country.

CHART 1 • America's BEST selling cars

Ford had a great Q1 with F-150 and Super Duty combined sales improving by 24.5%, and the momentum hasn't slowed. The F-Series continues its 48-year reign as America's top-selling vehicle, shifting 472,900 units in H1 2025 according to the chart. But what's striking about this year's data is the complete domination of pickups and SUVs – they now make up 47% of all sales (1.5M units) whilst pickups grab 37% (1.17M units), meaning sedans have been relegated to just 18% (505K units) of the market.

The real story here is pricing power. With the average transaction price for a pickup truck now exceeding $45,000, manufacturers are printing money. General Motors sold 874,679 pickups last year when you combine Silverado and Sierra sales – more than Ford's F-Series despite the Blue Oval's marketing claims. Meanwhile, Tesla's Model Y has stormed the charts at number nine, with 150,200 sales in H1 2025 – proof that even electric vehicles need that SUV shape to succeed in America.

Source: Visual Capitalist

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