Most-searched car brands of 2021

How can you rate the success of a manufacturer in the modern world?

Is it just by vehicles delivered or is there more to it than that? A connection with potential buyers perhaps? Why not both?

As one of the biggest automotive brands in the world, Toyota is coming off a high in 2021, having taken its 19th-straight year at the top of the Australian new car sales charts, as well as backing up its efforts to be the top-searched car maker across the most countries.

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In data compiled by Compare The Market, the insurance comparison agency found Toyota was the number-one searched automotive manufacturer on Google in 47 out of 154 analysed, roughly 31 per cent of all searches.

On our side of the fence at WhichCar, this comes as no shock – four of the top six articles in 2021 came courtesy of the new LandCruiser 300 Series launch, while Toyota's electric vehicle strategy reveal in December came as a surprise to the industry.

The three places behind Toyota were held by German rivals BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi respectively, as the three luxury marques continue to fight it out for premium sales in Australia – although only the Bavarians gained a significant number of new vehicle sales compared to 2020.

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Tailing the Germans, Korean siblings Kia and Hyundai took fifth and sixth place respectively, having topped Google searches in a combined 13 countries – just two more than Audi's total.

Electric vehicle pioneers Tesla were included in the list for the first time, topping the search results in five companies and looking to make up ground as it slowly but surely establishes itself as a mainstream manufacturer globally.

It's somewhat of a surprise to see – or rather not see – Volkswagen and Chevrolet not feature in the top 10, given both are consistently in the top five players of global vehicle production and the biggest pieces of the Volkswagen Group and General Motors respectively.

With the world returning to some form of normality and a host of new cars expected to launch in 2022, will this affect last year's results or are things going to remain unchanged?