The Burrow
Jan 19, 2026
After being knocked to third place by Tesla in 2023, BMW has surged back into second place and is gaining on Toyota, who continue to drop but managed to keep their crown in Compare the Market’s latest annual Most Searched Car Brands report.
As car insurance comparison experts, we have crunched the Google Trends data and keyword search volume for 2025, covering 155 countries, to find the most searched car brands across the world. Buckle up as the competition has risen this year!
Toyota is still the most searched car brand, but the number of countries where it was number one has dropped from 64 to 57. This means that Toyota’s lead has been steadily dropping since 2022, while BMW has been rising since then, and is now only 11 countries away from pulling neck-and-neck with the Japanese behemoth.
These results are based on the number of countries where a brand was the most-searched brand online for 2025, using Google Trends data. When you extend the Trends data to include the second and third-most searched brands per country, and counting total mentions across the podium for every country, Toyota gets 87 mentions – but BMW is just inches away at 81 mentions.
Ever a practical brand, Toyota dominated parts of the world where its legendary dependability and ease of maintenance are greatly valued. It was the number one brand across many countries in Africa, Asia, South America, Oceania and the Middle East.
BMW was the most searched brand in countries all over the world, but especially in Central and Eastern Europe, and parts of Asia.
Tesla was the third-most searched brand, after tearing into second place in 2023 and maintaining its lead over BMW in 2024. The American EV brand has dropped from being the number one most searched car brand online from 34 countries to 17 this year. Most of these were in Europe, but there were a few other locations where the brand was number one, notably the United States and China.
The race is heating up as Chinese EV brand BYD (Build Your Dreams) and Mercedes-Benz are also making gains in the rankings. BYD was the number one brand in 2 countries in 2024, but has jumped to being the number one brand in 7 countries in 2025.
Considering BYD is outselling rival Tesla,1 it’s likely next year’s report will see the Chinese brand climb even higher in the rankings.
Likewise, Mercedes is on the rise after declining steadily in the rankings since 2021. In 2024, the luxury brand had dropped to being number one in only one country (Tajikistan), but in 2025 it surged to become the top searched brand in six countries, claiming a tied fourth place with Japanese brand Honda.
While some brands made gains this year, several big names dropped out of the most searched brand rankings all together. Audi, Mazda and Ford were not the most searched car brand for even a single country this year, although they did get some mentions when extending the Google Trends data to include second-and third-most searched brands on a country level.
While Audi, Mazda and Ford dropped out of the rankings, Renault, GM (General Motors) and Proton all made appearances this year. It was the first time GM and Proton had made the rankings in the series history, while Renault hasn’t made the cut since 2021.
Compare the Market’s executive General Manager, Adrian Taylor notes that Toyota will likely remain a popular brand for some time, but things are shifting.
“We’re seeing growing interest in EV only brands with many of these originating from the Chinese market. These EVs have become a more affordable option as governments and markets globally push for electric-powered passenger transport to reduce emissions.” Taylor said.
“We’ve also seen a big resurgence in some brands, most notably BMW, who is closing in on Toyota’s position in the rankings. There’s definitely been more competition this year, and BMW is now a serious contender for the top spot.”
No matter what brand you drive, Adrian encourages car owners to compare their car insurance, stating that comparing could help you save money, or find a better deal.
“Not all policies are the same when it comes to coverage, and insurance can vary in price for the same make and model depending on which insurer you go with. It only takes a short time to compare online, and it could help you save money on your insurance.”
Always read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD) before purchasing.
Compare the Market used data from Google Trends and Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool to find the most searched car bands in 2025 in 155 countries, provided data was available.
Due to discrepancies in the way Google Trends classifies some brands such as Tesla, Tesla does not appear in the Google Trends rankings for the vehicle brands category. To account for Tesla, and other car brands, we gathered keyword search volume for each country’s top three brands in Google Trends and Tesla, BYD, Zeekr, and Genesis.
This then provided a list of countries and keyword search volume for these brands, and the brands with the highest search volume were taken to get the first, second and third most-searched brands for each country, and this data provided the top three brands used in the report.
Note that Google Trends results are subject to change, even historically, due to the way Google Trends samples data. Data for 2018 and 2019 was gathered between 21/05/2020 and 27/05/2020. Data for 2020 was collected on 04/01/2021 and 2021 data was collected on 01/12/2021. The data for 2022 was gathered on 01/12/2022, and data for 2023 was gathered on 01/12/2023. Google Trends and keyword search volume data for 2024 was gathered on 03/12/2024. Google Trends and keyword search volume data for 2025 was gathered on 06/01/2026 to 08/01/2026.
References:
1 BYD overtakes Tesla as world’s top-selling electric vehicle maker in 2025. Alex Misoyannis, DRIVE. 2025.
