Trending in 2013: Tesla, Jean Claude Van Damme’s Volvo Splits and Chevy Volt

CALIFORNIA — Auto-related searches were among the top trends and search terms in 2013, according to lists released by three top search engines. Tesla was particularly popular among Internet users, ranking No. 1 on Google’s list of U.S. Trending Car Companies and No. 6 on Bing’s Top News Stories of 2013.

Bing searchers were also interested in automotive sales, with “Toyota Outsells Chevy” ranking No. 5 on the Most Searched Economic Terms. This was behind Fiscal Cliff (No.1), Federal Reserve (No.2), Detroit Goes Bankrupt (No.3) and Student Loans Interest Rates (No.5).

On YouTube, actor Jean-Claude Van Damme’s epic split to promote Volvo trucks went viral. The video showed Van Damme easing into the splits with each foot secured on a Volvo truck as it drives into the sunset to the tune of Enya’s “Only Time.” The video — with its fitting lyrics, “Who can say where the road goes?” — came in at No. 6 on YouTube’s Top Trending Videos of 2013.

Today, Google released its 13^th annual Zeitgeist, or a “spirit of the times.” It allows users to browse through archives of Google’s top searches. The top automotive search terms are listed below. (Trending queries are based on the highest amount of traffic over a sustained period of time in ’13, while top search queries are the most popular search terms for the year, ranked in order by volume of searches).

The Chevy Volt topped the charts for the top trending ‘new car’ and ‘hybrid and electric cars’ lists.

US Trending Car Companies:

1. Tesla
2. Bugatti
3. MINI
4. Ford
5. Jeep
6. Toyota
7. GMC
8. Dodge
9. Subaru
10. Mazda

US Most Searched New Cars:

1. 2014 Corvette Stingray
2. 2014 Chevrolet Camaro
3. 2013 Honda Civic
4. 2014 Honda Accord
5. 2013 Jeep Wrangler
6. 2014 Ford F-150
7. 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee
8. 2014 Ford Explorer
9. 2013 Range Rover
10. 2014 Nissan Altima

US Trending New Cars:

1. 2014 Chevy Volt
2. 2013 Acura NSX
3. 2014 Fiat 500
4. 2014 Chevy Sonic
5. 2014 Ford Focus
6. 2014 Kia Optima
7. 2014 MINI Cooper
8. 2013 Scion iQ
9. 2014 Subaru BRZ
10. 2014 Lexus GS 350

Trending Hybrid and Electric Cars

1. Chevy Volt
2. Fisker Karma
3. Toyota Prius C
4. Toyota Prius V
5. Toyota Camry Hybrid
6. Hyundai Sonata Hybrid
7. Kia Optima Hybrid
8. Ford Focus Electric
9. Honda Civic Hybrid
10. Mitsubishi I-Miev

 On Yahoo’s most searched terms for the year, Miley Cyrus (No.1) and Kim Kardashian (No.2) took the top spots; no automotive brands appear on the overall list, nor did they appear on Twitter’s top 10 lists.