American-Made Is Relative
Cars.com ranking shows many brands headquartered overseas fit the definition, though Tesla is still tops.
Tesla swept the top four spots on the American-made index, led by the Model 3.
Pexels/Makara Heng
Just one U.S.-based auto brand made the top 10 of Cars.com’s 20th annual American-Made Index.
Texas-based Tesla took all four of the top positions on the list of 99 models determined by the automotive classifieds website to be the most American-made.
Cars.com said it analyzed 400 2025 model-year vehicles to arrive at the ranking based on the locations of their final assembly, percentage of U.S. and Canadian parts, countries of origin of all available engines and transmissions, and U.S. manufacturing workforces.
Three of Tesla’s four chart-topping models are assembled in California, the fourth in its headquarters city of Austin, Texas, according to the report. The automaker was founded in California and moved its headquarters to Austin in 2021.
Rounding out the top 10 of the list are the Jeep Gladiator by multinational automaker Stellantis; Kia EV6; Honda’s Ridgeline, Odyssey and Passport; and Volkswagen’s ID.4. The highest-ranking model by a U.S.-based automaker is the Chevrolet Colorado at No. 19.
President Donald Trump, in imposing trade tariffs on automotive imports, has targeted increased domestic production. Some automakers have since planned to expand stateside manufacturing, including General Motors, which said it will invest $4 billion among plants in Michigan, Kansas and Tennessee.
“We believe the future of transportation will be driven by American innovation and manufacturing expertise,” said Chairwoman and CEO Mary Barra in a press release on the plans.
But Cars.com pointed out that shifting production isn’t an overnight process. It described it as “glacial.” Tesla, meanwhile, had already been focusing production in the U.S.
“It’s not just that these vehicles feature a high percentage of U.S./Canadian parts content or major components assembled here in the U.S., it’s also the fact that they have so many people building these cars,” the company said, explaining that it weighs the workforce factor heavily in its ranking. “… this year it was a decisive factor in Tesla’s dominance atop the index.”
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