I couldn't find a single list that had Tesla anywhere near #1; source?

The Tesla Model Y was the world's best-selling vehicle in 2023. Hard to imagine you looked seriously and were unable to find that out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_Y

He may have been confused because it’s a dumb statistic.

In good faith he probably assumed that the above post implied that Tesla was in some way leading other manufacturers, rather than Tesla having the single best selling model while massively underperforming in sales compared to other manufacturers that have had the bright idea of offering many different models of car.

"most popular car in the world" not most popular last year; specificty matters if you want to make big claims. The title goes to the Corolla with over 50 million sold. And apparently 1.6mil 2023 according to finalized numbers.

Anyway, Tesla's numbers do not separate Model 3/Y, and they ballpaked $1.2

For individual models I've seen Model Y as #1. But seems like growth has stopped, so paralyzed is still appropriate, and they only have 2 models that sell significant numbers

The Model Y is the most popular car in the US only if you don't classify pickup trucks as cars. Pickup trucks dominate car sales in the US.

> if you don't classify pickup trucks as cars

Pickup trucks aren't cars so that is perfectly reasonable.

Pickup trucks aren't cars in the same way that tomatoes aren't vegetables. If you say "I bought a car" and then show someone your brand-new Ford F-150, nobody's going to think anything of it. Pickup trucks are cars, and watching Tesla fans try to spin this fact is really pathetic.

I don't know how widely held that viewpoint is. words mean things and cars aren't trucks, and someone's option on Tesla has nothing to do with that. If you call a truck a car, there are people that will look at you funny.

> If you call a truck a car, there are people that will look at you funny.

Damn right, and SUV's, Cyber"Truck"'s, Pickup's, Toorak Tractors, etc. aren't trucks save for north america.

George Miller famously made a serious of documentaries about car drivers that chase trucks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt7trqrPYX4

Depends what country/culture you're in. Here in Australia, you'd never not call a truck/ute a car.

Most other OEMs have (way way) more than four models, so that kind of list doesn't really make much sense to begin with.

Quick search suggests BYD made 3.02 million cars in 2023. Tesla: 1.8M

Yes, but half of BYD's cars are hybrid. Only ~1.6M are EV. They've also been around making batteries since 1995 and ICE cars since 2003.

It's not like Tesla's subsidies have been small, but BYD's have been enormous.

As they should have been in both cases. For most uses EV is superior, and this is the only way for Chinese manufacturers to meaningfully tackle the broader markets worldwide. You can’t compete with ICEs and hundreds of billions of dollars invested into that manufacturing capacity, supply chains, and know how. But you can entirely sidestep the whole thing. Which is what the Chinese are doing.

Sounds like a Tesla killing recipe for the existing automotive industry.

How much of a subsidy does Tesla receive by selling its green credits?

Individual model sales don't make much sense as a metric when makers are diversifying. The model Y has 1.2M sales for a total of 1.8M Tesla cars in 2023, where Toyota alone is at 11.2M.