Tesla is the most searched luxury car brand in the world, ahead of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and for the first time a Chinese marque sits in the top five. Online attention is a reliable early indicator of where the automobile industry is heading, and this year it points somewhere the last edition of this ranking did not anticipate.
The reshuffle is the most dramatic we have recorded. Tesla climbs three places to first. BMW and Mercedes-Benz each slip one. BYD arrives from nowhere into fourth, drawing more search interest than Porsche or Audi. And four names that have never appeared here before, Aston Martin, McLaren, Bugatti, and Polestar, push their way in.
$628B
projected size of the global luxury car market in 2026.
Something else changed this year: we widened the ranking from fifteen brands to twenty. The concentration of search interest that once justified a shorter list has flattened out, and a top fifteen would now exclude Maserati, Rivian, and a Cadillac that still sells the most expensive American car ever built. Twenty gives a truer picture of a market splitting into more directions at once.
The luxury fashion, watches, and jewelry sector moves slowly by comparison. Cars turn over faster, and the brands that lost ground here mostly lost it by hesitating.
Share of search interest
The top four brands account for 45% of all search interest in this ranking. Tesla and BYD, neither of which existed as a carmaker forty years ago, together draw more attention than the three German marques combined.
The 20 Most Popular Luxury Car Brands Online
| Rank | Brand | Country | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tesla | United States | ▲ 3 |
| 2 | BMW | Germany | ▼ 1 |
| 3 | Mercedes-Benz | Germany | ▼ 1 |
| 4 | BYD | China | New |
| 5 | Porsche | Germany | — |
| 6 | Land Rover | United Kingdom | ▲ 4 |
| 7 | Audi | Germany | ▼ 4 |
| 8 | Lamborghini | Italy | ▲ 1 |
| 9 | Lexus | Japan | ▼ 2 |
| 10 | Ferrari | Italy | ▼ 2 |
| 11 | Volvo | Sweden | ▼ 5 |
| 12 | Aston Martin | United Kingdom | New |
| 13 | Rolls-Royce | United Kingdom | ▲ 2 |
| 14 | McLaren | United Kingdom | New |
| 15 | Bugatti | France | New |
| 16 | Cadillac | United States | ▼ 5 |
| 17 | Maserati | Italy | New |
| 18 | Polestar | Sweden | New |
| 19 | Rivian | United States | New |
| 20 | Alfa Romeo | Italy | ▼ 6 |
Questions? See our methodology, definitions, and frequently asked questions at the end of this article.
1. Tesla
Tesla reaches the top of this ranking for the first time, and it gets there on a scale of attention no other carmaker commands. The badge alone draws 13.2% of all the search interest across the twenty brands here, more than BMW and more than Mercedes-Benz.
Attention is not the same as approval. The company’s paid robotaxi miles fell roughly 36% in the second quarter, down to around 700,000, as it redirected effort into gathering data specific to the Cybercab. That car, the steering-wheel-free two-seater, rolled its first unit off the line in February and moved to continuous production in the spring.
Elon Musk has conceded that robotaxi work is unlikely to produce meaningful revenue before 2027. For a brand whose valuation has long been argued on autonomy rather than sheet metal, that admission matters more than any model-year update.
What keeps Tesla at number one is reach. Its cars remain the default reference point for electric cars everywhere, which is a position no rival has yet taken from it.
| Country of origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Tesla Model 3, Tesla Model Y, Tesla Cybertruck |
| Share of search interest | 13.2% |
2. BMW
BMW loses the online crown it held last year and gains something more durable in exchange. It finished 2025 as the best-selling luxury carmaker in the world with more than 2.1 million deliveries, and through the first half of 2026 it outsold Mercedes-Benz by over 167,000 cars.
The Neue Klasse has finally stopped being a promise. The new iX3 is the first car on the platform, and the numbers are unusually convincing for a first attempt: an 800-volt architecture, 400 kW charging that takes the battery from 10% to 80% in 21 minutes, and up to 805 km of WLTP range from a 108.7 kWh pack.
US deliveries open in late September from $61,500, with a 434-mile range figure for the 50 xDrive. That combination of price and range is the sharpest answer any German brand has yet given to Tesla.
BMW has spent several years being described as late to electrification. The Neue Klasse is the point where that description stops being fair.
| Country of origin | Germany |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | BMW 3 Series, BMW X5, BMW iX3 |
| Share of search interest | 11.1% |
3. Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz slips one place to third, holding 10.7% of search interest while it rebuilds its electric lineup around a new architecture rather than adapting the old one.
The CLA is the clearest evidence of the change. Optimized for 800 volts and using a two-speed rear axle, the CLA 250+ claims up to 792 km of WLTP range, a figure that would have been implausible from this brand two years ago. The electric GLC follows late in the year with a 94 kWh battery, 360 kW of power, and 330 kW charging.
Sales tell a harder story. The brand sold 1,801,291 cars in 2025 and 837,200 in the first half of 2026, enough for second place globally but a step down year over year, in a German luxury segment where every major player is in the red.
Mercedes-Benz still builds the most complete range on this list, from the best luxury SUVs to Brabus creations that treat restraint as optional.
Learn more about Mercedes-Benz.
| Country of origin | Germany |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Mercedes-Benz GLC |
| Share of search interest | 10.7% |
4. BYD
The most significant entry in the history of this ranking. BYD arrives directly at fourth with 10.2% of search interest, drawing more online attention than Porsche, Audi, or Ferrari.
A caveat belongs here. BYD is not a luxury brand in the way Ferrari is. It is a volume manufacturer, and the search interest reflects the badge in its broadest sense. Its claim on this list rests on two sub-brands moving upmarket in earnest.
Denza is the nearer of the two, positioned in Europe as a premium electric marque around the Z9GT shooting brake and the D9 seven-seat MPV. Yangwang is the more ambitious: BYD vice president Stella Li has confirmed it arrives in Europe in 2026 to compete directly with Bentley, Porsche, Lotus, and Ferrari.
The company is simplifying elsewhere to make room, folding the Dynasty and Ocean lines under a single BYD badge internationally while it builds its first European plant in Hungary. Whether a Chinese car brand can establish genuine luxury equity in Europe is the open question of the decade, and BYD is the one testing it.
| Country of origin | China |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | BYD Seal, BYD Atto 3, Denza Z9GT |
| Share of search interest | 10.2% |
5. Porsche
Porsche holds fifth for a second consecutive year, the only brand in the top ten that has not moved, and it marks the occasion by building the most powerful road car in its history.
The Cayenne Turbo Electric produces 1,139 horsepower and 1,106 lb-ft of torque, reaching 60 mph in 2.4 seconds. The rest of the electric Cayenne range is more temperate: 435 horsepower in standard form from $113,800, 657 in the S from $131,200, and the Turbo from $168,000, with deliveries beginning at the end of summer.
The interesting decision is what Porsche did not do. Rather than replace the combustion and plug-in hybrid Cayennes, it will keep selling them in parallel. In a segment where most rivals have announced end dates for the engine, that is a deliberate hedge.
The electric Macan shares its PPE platform with Audi’s Q6 e-tron, one of the more productive pieces of Volkswagen Group engineering. Porsche continues to convert without discarding.
| Country of origin | Germany |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Porsche 911, Porsche Macan, Porsche Cayenne |
| Share of search interest | 7.7% |
6. Land Rover
The largest climb of any returning brand. Land Rover rises four places to sixth, and the reason is straightforward: Range Rover has become a search term in its own right, drawing roughly twice the interest of the parent name.
The electric Range Rover is confirmed for a late-2026 delivery window, and the waiting list had reached 76,976 names before a single car reached a customer. Few launches on this list carry that kind of demonstrated demand in advance.
The engineering underneath is changing just as fast. From this year, every new Range Rover, Defender, Discovery, and Jaguar is built on Nvidia’s DRIVE AGX platform, and five launches are scheduled inside eighteen months. In May, JLR and Stellantis signed a memorandum of understanding to explore joint development aimed at the US market.
For a British car brand that began with a utilitarian farm vehicle in 1948, one of the best classic cars ever made, the current position is a long way from where it started.
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Range Rover, Land Rover Defender, Range Rover Sport |
| Share of search interest | 5.9% |
7. Audi
Audi falls four places to seventh, the steepest decline among the German three, and the drop is harder to explain than the engineering would suggest.
The company delivered 1,644,429 cars in 2025 and 727,200 in the first half of 2026, third among the German luxury makers. Its PPE platform is quietly one of the most important pieces of architecture in the group, carrying the Q6 e-tron and A6 e-tron and doing the same work under Porsche’s electric Macan.
Good platforms do not generate search interest on their own. Audi’s problem this year is one of profile rather than product: it has no single car drawing the attention that the iX3 brings BMW or the CLA brings Mercedes.
Audi remains one of the most complete German car brands, and the A6 e-tron gives it a flagship worth the name. It needs the audience to notice.
| Country of origin | Germany |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Audi A3, Audi A4, Audi Q6 e-tron |
| Share of search interest | 5.6% |
8. Lamborghini
Lamborghini gains a place, and it does so having completed something none of its rivals have: every car it sells is now a hybrid.
The Temerario finished that transition when deliveries began in January. It replaces the Huracán with a twin-turbocharged V8 and three electric motors producing 907 horsepower, and it revs to 10,000 rpm, which Lamborghini says makes it the only production supercar engine to do so. At $386,649 it is the entry point to the range, a phrase that requires some perspective.
Above it sits the Fenomeno, a run of 29 cars built around the most powerful V12 the company has ever made, paired with three electric motors. Four new models are scheduled this year.
The Italian car brand has managed the hybrid transition without losing what people buy Lamborghini for. The V12 still sings, and the electric motors mostly make it louder.
| Country of origin | Italy |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Lamborghini Urus, Lamborghini Temerario, Lamborghini Revuelto |
| Share of search interest | 5.3% |
9. Lexus
Lexus drops two places online while holding a position most brands here would envy: second in the United States luxury market, with 169,712 sales in the first half of 2026, ahead of Mercedes-Benz.
This is also the year the LS sedan ends. The 2026 model year is its last, closing a run that began in 1989 with the car that forced the German establishment to take a Japanese car brand seriously.
What replaces it is not a sedan. The LS Concept is a long-bodied, flat-roofed machine on two rear axles, built around the passenger rather than the driver, and Lexus has been explicit that the S now stands for space rather than sedan. It is the most interesting reinterpretation of a flagship on this list.
Lexus has never chased search interest, and its reliability record continues to do the work that marketing does elsewhere.
| Country of origin | Japan |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Lexus RX, Lexus NX, Lexus GX |
| Share of search interest | 4.7% |
10. Ferrari
Ferrari slips two places and simultaneously builds the most consequential car in its modern history.
The Luce, previously referred to as the Elettrica, is the first all-electric Ferrari. It is also a four-door and a five-seater, two sentences that have never previously belonged in a description of a new Maranello product. It was developed with Jony Ive’s design collective LoveFrom, rides on a bespoke 800-volt platform built at the new E-Building, and uses four motors, one per wheel, for more than 1,000 horsepower.
The figures elsewhere are less romantic. It weighs more than 2.2 tons, offers over 500 km of range, and costs €550,000, roughly $640,000, with deliveries starting in the fourth quarter.
Purists have opinions. Ferrari raised its forecasts. Ferrari has spent seventy years being told what it should not build, and the order books have never much cared.
| Country of origin | Italy |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Ferrari SF90, Ferrari Purosangue, Ferrari 296 GTB |
| Share of search interest | 4.4% |
11. Volvo
The steepest fall in this year’s ranking. Volvo drops five places to eleventh, which is difficult to reconcile with a product year this strong.
The EX90 gained an 800-volt backbone capable of adding 155 miles of range in ten minutes on a 350 kW charger. A single-motor version joined the range, the twin-motor cars gained power, and the Twin Motor Performance at 670 horsepower is the most powerful car Volvo has ever offered. An electrochromic panoramic roof with adjustable tint is among the more genuinely useful luxuries introduced this year.
The likeliest explanation for the slide is competitive rather than qualitative: Polestar now takes some of the search interest that once had nowhere else Swedish to go.
Volvo remains the Swedish car brand that made safety a luxury argument rather than a regulatory one, and that position is intact.
| Country of origin | Sweden |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Volvo XC60, Volvo EX90, Volvo EX30 |
| Share of search interest | 2.9% |
12. Aston Martin
Aston Martin enters the ranking for the first time, arriving with a range that has been sharpened from top to bottom.
The S badge now runs across the entire lineup. The DBX S produces 717 bhp and 664 lb-ft, using turbocharger technology taken directly from the Valhalla, and it sits above a DBX 707 that has been demoted to entry point with 697 horsepower. The DB12 S and Vantage S complete the tier, and the three appeared together for the first time at Goodwood.
Having a coherent performance hierarchy sounds like a small thing. For a company that has spent much of the past decade reorganizing itself, it is evidence of a settled plan.
Aston Martin has always been the most cinematic name in British motoring, and it still supplies more James Bond cars than anyone else.
Learn more about Aston Martin.
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Aston Martin DBX, Aston Martin Vantage, Aston Martin DB12 |
| Share of search interest | 2.5% |
13. Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce climbs two places, helped by a Spectre that has grown into the range rather than sitting apart from it.
Series II improves the car where the first version was weakest. Revised cells and drivetrain changes lift WLTP range by up to 18%, to as much as 390 miles. The Black Badge version is now the most powerful Rolls-Royce ever built, producing up to 679 horsepower in Infinity Mode and 811 Nm in Spirited Mode, alongside a new Ethereal Blue finish with Iced Black detailing.
One note on the number beside this entry. The Rolls-Royce name is shared with an aerospace company, and a meaningful share of searches for it are looking for a share price rather than a Phantom. We have counted the brand term as searched, which means this position is, if anything, generous.
Rolls-Royce still builds several of the most expensive cars in the world, and bespoke commissions remain the real business.
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Rolls-Royce Cullinan, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Rolls-Royce Spectre |
| Share of search interest | 2.5% |
14. McLaren
McLaren joins the ranking in the middle of the most complete reinvention of any brand here.
The company was acquired by Abu Dhabi-backed CYVN Holdings, then merged with the British electric start-up Forseven to form McLaren Group Holdings, with Forseven’s Nick Collins taking charge of the combined business. Roughly £1.5 billion of investment came with it.
The product consequences are already visible. The W1 hybrid hypercar begins reaching customers this year. More telling, McLaren has confirmed it will build a car with more than two seats, ending decades of mid-engined orthodoxy, with a hybrid V8 SUV reported under the codename P47 for around 2028. Full electrification has been ruled out for now.
McLaren spent its road-car life as a specialist. It is about to find out whether the badge travels.
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | McLaren Artura, McLaren 750S, McLaren W1 |
| Share of search interest | 2.5% |
15. Bugatti
Bugatti enters the ranking as the Tourbillon reaches production, and the specification remains difficult to believe even written down.
The engine is a naturally aspirated 8.3-liter V16, developed with Cosworth, revving to 9,000 rpm. Three electric motors and a 24.8 kWh battery bring the combined output to 1,775 horsepower. It reaches 62 mph in two seconds, tops out at 276 mph, and will travel 37 miles on electricity alone, which is a strange and appealing detail.
Production begins this year at the new Atelier in Molsheim and runs through 2029. Exactly 250 will be built, and every slot is already allocated. Pricing starts at €3.8 million before options.
The Tourbillon is the successor to the Chiron, and the Bugatti price list has never been a document about value. It is about whether the thing can be done at all.
| Country of origin | France |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Bugatti Tourbillon, Bugatti Chiron, Bugatti Veyron |
| Share of search interest | 2.2% |
16. Cadillac
Cadillac falls five places to sixteenth, dropping out of the top fifteen for the first time since we began this ranking.
The Celestiq remains its most compelling argument. A hand-built ultra-luxury electric sedan with a 111 kWh battery, roughly 300 miles of range, and a 3.7-second run to 60 mph, it is positioned as a direct rival to the Rolls-Royce Spectre, which is not a sentence anyone would have written about an American car brand a decade ago.
The difficulty is everything below it. Cadillac’s electric range has expanded quickly, but no single model has captured attention the way the Escalade once did, and the brand’s search interest has thinned as a result.
Cadillac is building better cars than its position here suggests. It has not yet found the one that makes people look.
| Country of origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Cadillac Escalade, Cadillac Lyriq, Cadillac Celestiq |
| Share of search interest | 1.9% |
17. Maserati
Maserati returns to this ranking at the lowest point in its modern commercial history, which makes its survival the story rather than any individual car.
The numbers are stark. Deliveries fell 57% to 11,300 cars in 2024, and 2025 closed at 11,127. Stellantis cancelled a planned investment of roughly €1.5 billion, leaving the future of the electric MC20 and the electric Quattroporte and Levante successors in doubt.
The reprieve came this year. Stellantis has confirmed it intends to strengthen Maserati as a pure luxury brand, with two new large models planned and a next-generation Grecale due in 2027. It is also in discussions with two unnamed partners over technology and development, with a fuller plan promised in December.
The Grecale, from around $80,000, is the entry point and currently carries most of the volume. Maserati makes some of the best-sounding cars in Italy and has spent a decade struggling to sell them.
| Country of origin | Italy |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Maserati Grecale, Maserati MC20, Maserati Levante |
| Share of search interest | 1.9% |
18. Polestar
Polestar makes its first appearance, and the timing is not coincidental. The Polestar 5 reached customers this year, giving the brand an actual flagship rather than a concept car and a set of intentions.
It is a four-door with more than 870 horsepower, and it does the thing Polestar has always promised and rarely delivered: it competes on performance without asking to be judged as a design exercise first.
The brand’s relationship with Volvo remains the most interesting dynamic here. Volvo posted the steepest fall in this ranking in the same year Polestar entered it, and both are Swedish, both are electric, and both are pursuing a similar buyer.
Polestar has taken a long time to arrive. It is here now.
| Country of origin | Sweden |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Polestar 2, Polestar 4, Polestar 5 |
| Share of search interest | 1.8% |
19. Rivian
Rivian enters the ranking on the strength of a single model that has to work.
The R2 launched in the second quarter as a dual-motor all-wheel-drive Performance version at $57,990, with 656 horsepower and an EPA-estimated 330 miles of range. An AWD Premium follows late this year at $53,990, a rear-wheel-drive Standard in the first half of 2027 at $48,490, and the long-promised $45,000 version in late 2027.
That laddered pricing is the whole strategy. Rivian built its reputation on expensive, capable adventure vehicles, among the best electric pickup trucks available, and the R2 is the car meant to carry it into real volume without diluting what the badge means.
Rivian is the newest name on this list. Whether it stays depends on the next eighteen months.
| Country of origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Rivian R1S, Rivian R1T, Rivian R2 |
| Share of search interest | 1.6% |
20. Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo closes the ranking six places lower than last year, and the fall traces directly to a strategy the company has now abandoned.
The plan was for the next Giulia and Stelvio to launch as electric-only cars. Faced with slower EV adoption than forecast, Alfa Romeo reversed course, delaying both to 2028 while it redesigns them around combustion and hybrid powertrains. The current Giulia and Stelvio have had their production extended to roughly 2027 to cover the gap.
That leaves the Junior, the subcompact crossover built in Poland, carrying more of the brand than it was designed to. It is a capable car in a crowded segment, and it is not the sort of model that generates the search interest a Giulia Quadrifoglio does.
Alfa Romeo has one of the most loved badges in motoring and has spent this year deciding what to put behind it.
| Country of origin | Italy |
|---|---|
| Most popular models | Alfa Romeo Giulia, Alfa Romeo Stelvio, Alfa Romeo Junior |
| Share of search interest | 1.6% |
Just outside the top 20
Four names fell short this year, and two of them are absences worth explaining.
Bentley finished closest, missing the cut by a narrow margin, and remains one of the most recognized luxury badges in the world. Genesis continues to build well-reviewed cars that have not yet converted into search interest at the scale of the established marques, a familiar position for a young Korean car brand.
Jaguar is the significant departure. It has withdrawn its entire lineup ahead of a relaunch, and the production Type 00 grand tourer has slipped to a 2026 reveal at around £120,000. A brand with nothing to sell cannot hold a ranking position, and Jaguar chose that gap deliberately. Whether the gamble works will be clear in next year’s edition.
Chrysler also drops out, its range having narrowed to the point where it no longer competes as a luxury marque in any meaningful sense.
Methodology and sources: How we rank the best luxury car brands
This ranking measures one thing: how much attention each luxury car brand commands online, worldwide, over the trailing year. Search interest is the earliest reliable signal of commercial momentum, which is why we have run this analysis annually since 2021.
We begin with the share of search interest for every luxury carmaker sold internationally. We sum the search demand for each brand’s name across the query variations people actually type, then calculate each brand’s share of the combined total for the brands in the ranking. That share is the number shown in each entry and in the chart above.
Two rules govern how the brand terms are chosen, and both matter more than they might appear.
First, where a brand markets a sub-brand as a distinct name, we count it with the parent. Range Rover is searched far more often than Land Rover, and treating them separately would misrepresent both.
Second, where a brand’s name collides with a more common non-automotive meaning, we use the qualified automotive forms instead. Jaguar and Genesis are the two clear cases: counting their bare names would fold in an animal, a football team, a rock band, and a book of the Bible. Rolls-Royce is the awkward exception, since it shares a name with an aerospace company and cannot be cleanly separated. We have noted that in its entry.
This year we expanded the ranking from fifteen brands to twenty. Search interest has spread across more marques than it did when we started, and a list of fifteen would now omit brands with a legitimate claim to inclusion.
Definitions
Our summary table and per-brand entries refer to the following term:
- Share of search interest is calculated from worldwide search demand over the trailing twelve months. We measure the absolute search interest for each brand in the ranking, then express it as a percentage of the combined total for all twenty. It is a relative measure, so a brand’s share can fall in a year when its absolute search volume grows, if the market around it grew faster.
Best luxury car brands: Frequently asked questions
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