Mitsubishi Beats Toyota For Best 2024 Sales Growth Among Japanese Automakers

The 2024 US sales numbers are in – at least from all the Japanese automakers, namely Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Mazda. Excluding their premium counterparts, all Japanese car brands experienced sales growth last year compared to their numbers in 2023. Mitsubishi particularly stood out with a whopping 25.77% year-on-year (YoY) growth, despite being the automaker that sold the least number of vehicles in 2024, thanks to the strong sales performance of the Outlander SUV even with the arrival of an upgraded version this year.

• Toyota

  Toyota is a Japanese automaker founded in 1937 that has developed a reputation for reliability across a multitude of segments, from sports cars and family sedans to pickup trucks and off-roaders. Famous models from the brand include the Hilux, Land Cruiser, Camry, Crown, and Corolla, the latter being the world’s best-selling vehicle nameplate, with more than 50 million Corolla-badged vehicles being sold since it was first introduced. Toyota typically competes in the mainstream market, but is also famous for launching Lexus as a luxury sub-brand to take on Mercedes-Benz.

  Founded

  August 28, 1937

  Founder

  Kiichiro Toyoda

  Headquarters

  Aichi, Japan

  Owned By

  Publicly Traded

  Current CEO

  Koji Sato

• 

  Honda

  Japanese automaker Honda rose from the ashes of WWII and set about its business as a manufacturer of motorcycles initially, only launching its first car, the T360 kei truck, in 1963. Founder Soichiro Honda targeted the American market as the most important nut to crack, leading to generations of iconic nameplates like the Civic and Accord being among America’s best-selling passenger cars. Today, Hondas are renowned for their safety, practicality, and reliability, with a sprinkling of performance from models like the Civic Type R.

  Founded

  24 September 1948

  Founder

  Soichiro Honda

  Headquarters

  Hamamatsu, Japan

  Owned By

  Publicly Traded

  Current CEO

  Toshihiro Mibe

• 

  Nissan

  Nissan Motor Corporation is a Japanese automaker founded in 1933 and the parent automaker of Infiniti and formerly Datsun. Nissan produces a wide variety of mass-market vehicles, including popular SUVs like the Rogue, sedans like the Sentra, and trucks like the Nissan Frontier, but is also responsible for iconic sports cars like the Nissan Z and GT-R. Since 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance (the name changed when Mitsubishi joined in 2016).

  Founded

  26 December 1933

  Founder

  Yoshisuke Aikawa

  Headquarters

  Nishi-ku, Yokohama

  Owned By

  Publicly Traded

  Current CEO

  Makoto Uchida

The top three best-selling Japanese car brands in the US are Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Despite this, Mitsubishi beat Toyota in terms of YoY sales increase, with the latter only growing by 3%. Both Mazda and Honda also show exemplary numbers compared to the previous year, with 16% and 11.1% YoY growth, respectively. Meanwhile, Nissan saw a commendable increase in sales, growing by 3.8% despite the current global management turmoil and impending merger with Honda.

Japanese Cars Are Still Popular

The top three Japanese automakers and Mitsubishi share a common trend – their cars are still generally popular in 2024. Only the Mirai and Supra were the only outlier cars of Toyota, which is led by CarBuzz’s 2025 Car of the Year, the Camry. The decreasing popularity of the Honda Accord was offset by the Civic, while Nissan’s affordable cars, the Versa and Sentra, were strong contenders in the segment, posting double-digit sales growth. The Mirage may be on its way to extinction this year, but Mitsubishi moved more than twice as many hatchbacks in 2024 than in 2023 (29,766 versus 13,219, respectively).

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Things are looking different for Mazda and Subaru, though. All Subaru cars experienced a decline in sales in 2024, with the BRZ, Legacy, and WRX showing the most downturn. Meanwhile, the Mazda3, both sedan and hatchback models, sold well, but the MX-5 Miata, both soft-top and RF models, saw a 9.7% decline. Whether the arrival of the 35th Anniversary Edition this year can remedy this remains to be seen.

Things Are Looking Up For Electrified Models

All Japanese car brands exhibited strong sales performance of electrified (hybrid and battery-electric) models in the US. Toyota led the segment with 883,426 electrified models, up 55.1% YoY, with significant contributions from the RAV4 Hybrid and Prius​. In line with its 25th anniversary milestone this year, Honda moved 349,020 electrified vehicles, representing a 10.6% YoY growth, while Mazda’s addition of the CX-50 Hybrid cemented the automaker’s intention to go hybrid in the US. Subaru has yet to introduce a hybrid model, but that’s about to change this year.

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Even Japanese battery-electric vehicles are gaining traction stateside. Toyota sold almost twice as many bZ4X in 2024 as last year (18,570 versus 9,329) amid an impending price cut, while Honda moved a total of 33,017 units of the Prologue. Both the Nissan LEAF and Ariya were more popular in 2024 than the previous period, yielding at least a 47% increase in sales figures. Even the Subaru Solterra, which will be getting a massive price drop this year, drove positive numbers in 2024, selling a total of 12,447 units.