Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has declared victory and labeled the Model Y as the bestselling vehicle for a third straight year. Grok, an AI chatbot from Musk’s xAI, claims the victory may be premature and could be entirely wrong.
Model Y, Bestseller?
The Model Y has broken several records, including becoming the first electric vehicle to ever top the year-end global sales list. The vehicle is also the bestselling electric vehicle of all time.
Musk recently claimed another milestone.
“Tesla Model Y is now officially the world’s best-selling car for the third year in a row!” Musk tweeted.
The official Tesla account on X also said the same claim in a year-end video review.
Comments on both posts were met with some reluctance to believe Tesla and Musk, especially with many reports of the automaker’s struggles in different parts of the world in 2025, related to some people shying away from Musk and others turning to cheaper vehicles from Chinese competitors.
Asking Grok turned up the following result:
“Tesla claims in their 2025 recap that the Model Y is the world’s best-selling vehicle for the third year. However, independent analyses from Focus2Move (YTD Oct) and projections from Electrek estimate Toyota RAV4 with ~1.2M units, Model Y with ~1.02M. Final global data will confirm in months,” Grok said.
A user on X shared findings from Grok under the Musk post. That data from Grok shows that the Model Y also lost the title to the RAV4 from Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE:TM) in 2024 and will fall short in 2025, likely ranking third behind the RAV4 and the Toyota Corolla. Data from Kelley Blue Book lists the RAV4 as the top-selling vehicle for 2024.
This Grok data shows the Model Y sales down 11% to 13% globally year-over-year in 2025.
“The Model Y’s peak dominance was really just 2023, with 2024 contested and 2025 clearly not in its favor,” Grok said.
Grok says the Model Y is “still an incredible success story” for the EV market, but says that future data will likely show the Tesla vehicle was not the top seller for 2025.
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Fourth Quarter Data On Watch
Tesla is expected to report fourth-quarter deliveries later this week. That report will highlight the annual deliveries and could paint a bigger picture for how well the Model Y sold. Tesla typically includes the Model Y and Model 3 figures together.
Investor Gene Munster recently said he expects Tesla to report fourth-quarter deliveries of around 415,000. This would be down 16% year-over-year and also come in shy of the consensus Street estimate of around 449,000.
Tesla reported record deliveries of 497,099 in the third quarter, which came with the U.S. federal tax credit expiring on Sept. 30, the last day of the quarter. Tesla reported deliveries of 495,570 in last year’s fourth quarter.
Munster says his estimate accounts for the credit expiration, which will likely result in a larger-than-expected drop in deliveries.
Tesla’s fourth-quarter delivery figures could put even more confusion around the company and Musk’s claim that the Model Y was the bestselling vehicle in 2025. It will be interesting to see if the company and Musk continue to state this going forward as more data is released.
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Photo: Courtesy Tesla Inc.
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