The internet has everything we could ever need on it, for the most part anyway. That includes being able to search for car brands and the vehicles they produce. In fact, the website of an automaker is often the first port of call for us when looking to buy a new car.
That has led to an interesting study by Emarketer, which has compiled Comscore data to try and determine which automaker had the most unique website visitors in April 2026. It might sound quite dull, but in fact the opposite is very true.
It showed that some of the major brands in America, such as Ford and Toyota, had a huge number of visitors across the course of the month. What it also showed was that brands like Hyundai and Kia were actually beating some of America’s biggest names.
What the data also showed was that, despite its obvious downsides, AI has been a handy tool for consumers who are looking to buy a new car. In fact, in many ways, it’s made their lives easier as they have been able to compare the vehicles from different manufacturers side-by-side.
Who Were the Most Searched Automakers?
The leading manufacturers probably won’t come as a surprise. According to Emarketer, it is the Toyota Group and Ford Motor Company that were the two highest searched in America across April 2026. Toyota took the top spot, with 9.2 million unique website visitors that month, with Ford following close behind with 9.0 million. But there was then quite a gap to third place.
In third place was the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group. Not perhaps a brand you would expect to see in the top three, the company achieved 6.2 million unique visitors in April. But given the fact that sales have been excellent for Hyundai and Kia in recent times, maybe it shouldn’t be such a surprise to see them at the top. What is perhaps more of a surprise is seeing who exactly the manufacturer beat.
Below them was General Motors. Yes, you read that right. Possibly the most well-known of American automotive groups, General Motors was 900,000 visits below Kia and Hyundai, with 5.3 million in total. GM was only just ahead of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, better known now as Stellantis, which amassed 4.8 million unique visitors in April. So the gulf between the two wasn’t big, but both were miles behind what Toyota and Ford had been able to achieve.
Unique Visitors for Tesla Were Well Below Toyota and Ford
Below Stellantis was Nissan at 4.3 million, and Honda was just below them at 4.1 million. But even further below, with over two million fewer visitors than what Nissan was able to achieve, was Tesla. At just 2.5 million unique visitors, it’s clear that not a huge amount of people were seeking one of Elon Musk’s electric cars in the Spring of 2026. Perhaps that is a sign that the EV market really has slowed down?
Just below Tesla and rounding out the top ten was the Volkswagen Group at 2.1 million, with BMW also on the same number of visitors. Of course, these numbers aren’t indicative of how many people bought each automaker’s cars. But it is perhaps an indicator of which brands have more appeal at the moment. Toyota and Ford clearly look to be on a lot of people’s minds right now.