I have been following the North American and, to a lesser extent, global automotive industry for over ten years and have obsessively studied the roller coaster ride it has undergone over that period.<\/p>\n
From the slew of bankruptcies precipitated by the 2008 financial recession to the humbling of industry giants, the rise of electric vehicles to the rapid adoption of self-driving technologies, and the consolidation of the industry to the sales slump caused by the COVID-induced chip crunch, there is certainly a lot I can talk about.<\/p>\n
But rather than write an extensive report highlighting every major development the industry has experienced over the past 15 years, I am going to use this piece of internet real estate to assess the performance of the world\u2019s biggest automakers and give each one a rating. Think of it as a report card.<\/p>\n
As of the end of 2022, the largest global automotive groups in no particular order were Toyota, the Volkswagen Group, the Hyundai Group, Stellantis, General Motors, Ford, Honda, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Suzuki, Tesla, and Mazda.<\/p>\n
For the sake of brevity, I excluded the large Chinese automakers from the analysis because, despite making headway in their efforts to expand internationally, they are still mostly relegated to their Chinese domestic market and are not serious global players\u2026 yet. You can bet that will change in the coming years.<\/p>\n
Casual observers often make the mistake of only using a company\u2019s revenue and sales volume to assess its overall health, but as you will soon see, these metrics hardly tell the whole story. Profitability is a more important measure of success.<\/p>\n
So, in addition to sales volume and revenue, I will be looking at their net and operating profits, both in absolute amounts and as a percentage of their sales; how much profits they made per vehicle; and how much profits they made per employee.<\/p>\n
This will give you a good idea of just how well each automaker has been managed.<\/p>\n
Ranking by Unit Sales<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/autotribute.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image.png\")
<\/figure>\nLet\u2019s kick off the analysis by ranking the automakers by how many vehicles they sold and how much revenue they generated in their fiscal year 2022.<\/p>\n
Now, as eye-catching as both metrics are, they are not included in my rating system for two key reasons. First, as noted earlier, sales volume and revenue alone are not particularly useful for assessing the health of an automaker.<\/p>\n
General Motors, for instance, was still the world\u2019s largest automaker by volume not long before it filed for bankruptcy in 2009.<\/p>\n
Second, including it in my rating would put the smaller automaker at a disadvantage. You might be surprised at just how incredibly successful a few of the small players are when you look beyond sales volume.<\/p>\n
Disclaimer out of the way, Toyota, including all its subsidiaries such as Lexus and Hino, was the largest automaker in 2022, followed by the Volkswagen Group and its large collection of automotive brands.<\/p>\n
The Hyundai Group, which includes Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis brands, came in third place, which will probably come as a surprise to many seeing as Korean automakers were bottom feeders just two decades ago.<\/p>\n
Stellantis, an automotive group formed from the merger between the Italian\u2013American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group in 2021, didn\u2019t trail too far behind in fourth place.<\/p>\n
General Motors, once the industry\u2019s top dog, rounds out the top five.<\/p>\n
Ford, Honda, Suzuki, and Nissan huddle in the middle, while household names like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla take the 10th<\/sup>, 12th<\/sup>, and 13th<\/sup> place, respectively.<\/p>\nKeep the latter three automakers in mind for the revenue and profitability rankings.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth noting that automotive sales were severely impacted by COVID, with nearly every automaker experiencing a sales slump during the epidemic and having still not recovered fully as of the end of 2022.<\/p>\n
Ranking by Revenue<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/autotribute.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-22.png\")
<\/figure>\nRevenue is the average sales price of a vehicle multiplied by the total number of vehicles sold, and there is some reshuffling with this ranking.<\/p>\n
The Volkswagen Group displaces Toyota for the top spot, while Stellantis beats the Hyundai Group for third place mostly because Hyundai\u2019s sales skew more towards affordable, lower-priced cars for developing markets than most other automakers.<\/p>\n
The biggest jumps come from Mercedes-Benz at 5th<\/sup> and BMW at 8th<\/sup>, however, with Mercedes beating giants such as General Motors, Ford, and Honda.<\/p>\nTesla also moved up the revenue ranking, though not as drastically as its German rivals. Even so, it\u2019s impressive for such a relative upstart to make almost as much revenue as Nissan, an automaker that was among the top five largest in revenue not too long ago.<\/p>\n
As with sales volume, revenue by itself is not included in my rating system because, despite some of the small automakers making big jumps in the ranking because of their luxury car branding allowing them to charge price premiums for their vehicles, revenue is still a metric that heavily favors large automakers.<\/p>\n
Scale is king when it comes to revenue generation but not necessarily when it comes to profitability.<\/p>\n
Ranking by Profitability<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/autotribute.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-23.png\")
<\/figure>\nHere is where things get interesting. When we look at profitability \u2013 that is, a company\u2019s actual profit after working expenses not included in the calculation of gross profit have been paid \u2013 it was BMW that took the number one spot with nearly $20 billion in profits in its fiscal year 2022.<\/p>\n
The second most profitable company, Stellantis, also comes as a surprise since many industry analysts and auto enthusiasts like to criticize the automotive conglomerate for supposedly consisting of brands that are on life-support, brands not many buyers don\u2019t like. It beat the Hyundai Group by more than double the net profits despite selling fewer vehicles.<\/p>\n
Toyota and the Volkswagen Group both earned above $15 Billion in profit, placing fourth and fifth, respectively. However, that\u2019s not particularly impressive when you consider that both high-volume manufacturers sell substantially more vehicles than any other automaker, including Stellantis, another high-volume automaker.<\/p>\n
BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla brought in a lot of profit due to being premium automotive groups. Tesla\u2019s result is particularly impressive seeing as the company made the fewest number of vehicles after Mazda.<\/p>\n
Ford and Renault came in last because they lost money in 2022, demonstrating just how deceptive sales volume and revenue are at gauging a company\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
<\/figure>\nLet\u2019s kick off the analysis by ranking the automakers by how many vehicles they sold and how much revenue they generated in their fiscal year 2022.<\/p>\n
Now, as eye-catching as both metrics are, they are not included in my rating system for two key reasons. First, as noted earlier, sales volume and revenue alone are not particularly useful for assessing the health of an automaker.<\/p>\n
General Motors, for instance, was still the world\u2019s largest automaker by volume not long before it filed for bankruptcy in 2009.<\/p>\n
Second, including it in my rating would put the smaller automaker at a disadvantage. You might be surprised at just how incredibly successful a few of the small players are when you look beyond sales volume.<\/p>\n
Disclaimer out of the way, Toyota, including all its subsidiaries such as Lexus and Hino, was the largest automaker in 2022, followed by the Volkswagen Group and its large collection of automotive brands.<\/p>\n
The Hyundai Group, which includes Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis brands, came in third place, which will probably come as a surprise to many seeing as Korean automakers were bottom feeders just two decades ago.<\/p>\n
Stellantis, an automotive group formed from the merger between the Italian\u2013American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group in 2021, didn\u2019t trail too far behind in fourth place.<\/p>\n
General Motors, once the industry\u2019s top dog, rounds out the top five.<\/p>\n
Ford, Honda, Suzuki, and Nissan huddle in the middle, while household names like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla take the 10th<\/sup>, 12th<\/sup>, and 13th<\/sup> place, respectively.<\/p>\n Keep the latter three automakers in mind for the revenue and profitability rankings.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that automotive sales were severely impacted by COVID, with nearly every automaker experiencing a sales slump during the epidemic and having still not recovered fully as of the end of 2022.<\/p>\n Revenue is the average sales price of a vehicle multiplied by the total number of vehicles sold, and there is some reshuffling with this ranking.<\/p>\n The Volkswagen Group displaces Toyota for the top spot, while Stellantis beats the Hyundai Group for third place mostly because Hyundai\u2019s sales skew more towards affordable, lower-priced cars for developing markets than most other automakers.<\/p>\n The biggest jumps come from Mercedes-Benz at 5th<\/sup> and BMW at 8th<\/sup>, however, with Mercedes beating giants such as General Motors, Ford, and Honda.<\/p>\n Tesla also moved up the revenue ranking, though not as drastically as its German rivals. Even so, it\u2019s impressive for such a relative upstart to make almost as much revenue as Nissan, an automaker that was among the top five largest in revenue not too long ago.<\/p>\n As with sales volume, revenue by itself is not included in my rating system because, despite some of the small automakers making big jumps in the ranking because of their luxury car branding allowing them to charge price premiums for their vehicles, revenue is still a metric that heavily favors large automakers.<\/p>\n Scale is king when it comes to revenue generation but not necessarily when it comes to profitability.<\/p>\n Ranking by Profitability<\/strong><\/p>\n Here is where things get interesting. When we look at profitability \u2013 that is, a company\u2019s actual profit after working expenses not included in the calculation of gross profit have been paid \u2013 it was BMW that took the number one spot with nearly $20 billion in profits in its fiscal year 2022.<\/p>\n The second most profitable company, Stellantis, also comes as a surprise since many industry analysts and auto enthusiasts like to criticize the automotive conglomerate for supposedly consisting of brands that are on life-support, brands not many buyers don\u2019t like. It beat the Hyundai Group by more than double the net profits despite selling fewer vehicles.<\/p>\n Toyota and the Volkswagen Group both earned above $15 Billion in profit, placing fourth and fifth, respectively. However, that\u2019s not particularly impressive when you consider that both high-volume manufacturers sell substantially more vehicles than any other automaker, including Stellantis, another high-volume automaker.<\/p>\n BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla brought in a lot of profit due to being premium automotive groups. Tesla\u2019s result is particularly impressive seeing as the company made the fewest number of vehicles after Mazda.<\/p>\n Ford and Renault came in last because they lost money in 2022, demonstrating just how deceptive sales volume and revenue are at gauging a company\u2019s success.<\/p>\nRanking by Revenue<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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