Detailed Infographic Shows World's Most-Searched Carmakers

The enterprising folks, at Top Speed, have created an incredibly detailed infographic, listing the automobile manufacturers with the highest annual Google searches. The study, which is based on the data collected over a 12-month period between April 2014 and March 2015, provides an in-depth region-wise analysis of the most-searched automotive brands. For instance, Toyata topped the list in the United States of America, while the European nations mostly chose German carmarkers, such as BMW, Audi and Mercedes. The study states:

Data for each country included the highest search volume per month and the car brands matching that search volume. Countries with an average monthly search volume of less than 100 were not included. For the U.S., we’ve also included data for each of the 51 states.

Last year, Japanese company, Toyota, became the world’s most popular car manufacturer, having sold nearly 10.23 million vehicles worldwide. At the second place was the Volkswagen Group with over 10.14 million sales, followed by US-based General Motors, which delivered a total of 9.92 million units. According to Google’s 2014 Trends report, however, Toyota was only the fourth most-searched automotive brand in the world, while Volkswagen was nowhere to be found in the top 10. Top Speed explains:

Though it may seem complicated, the reasons for this discrepancy are quite simple. Selling millions of cars doesn’t make an automaker popular. It just means that said manufacturer meets the needs of more customers than others. “Needs” include not just types of cars, but availability and affordability as well… In other words, most people searching for a Subaru WRX don’t actually buy one. A WRX won’t satisfy a family man’s needs in terms of roominess and cargo space, but a larger sedan or an SUV will. The more affordable the better, and we’re back to why Toyota and Volkswagen came to cross swords for the world’s biggest selling carmaker.

The study shows that, although Toyota was the overall winner in the US, many of the states in the northern and central parts of the country actually favored Ford. In case of Central America, the top spot was shared by Toyota, along with Hyundai, Suzuki and Mitsubishi. In South America, on the other hand, majority of the people chose Chevrolet. The picture was slightly different when it came to Europe, as most of the countries here preferred German carmakers, like Audi, BMW and Mercedes. Not surprisingly, in Asia, Japanese companies, Honda and Toyota, turned out to be the most sought after car brands. Toyota proved to be undisputed winner in both Africa and Australia. The study elaborates:

The fact that Toyota is the world’s best-selling automaker simply because it builds affordable and reliable cars is yet again evident in Africa, where the Japanese brand was the most searched in 26 of the 43 countries included in this research.