Mustang – World’s Best-Selling Sports Car, Sports Coupe Titles

The car that named a whole, ongoing segment.

For the second straight year, Ford Mustang is the world’s best-selling sports car. The famed pony car – it celebrates its 57th birthday Saturday – held its title of best-selling sports coupe for the sixth straight year. With good sales in high-performance Bullitt, Shelby GT350, Shelby GT350R and Shelby GT500 models, Mustang led all competitors with 80,577 global sales in 2020, according to the most recent vehicle registration data from IHS Markit*. That sales total represents 15.1% of the sports coupe market, up from 14.8% a year earlier.

“Mustang enthusiasts love their performance cars, and they showed that yet again,” said Hau Thai-Tang, chief product platform and operations officer, Ford Motor Company. “In a challenging year for the entire auto industry because of the global pandemic, Mustang performed very well, increasing its share in the global sports car segment.”

The United States remains the strongest global market for Mustang, representing ~75% of total sales. Texas (8,600 vehicles), California (6,200 vehicles) and Florida (5,864 vehicles) remain the top markets. Supporting “bit roles” in Mustang retaining its title were increased sales in various European markets. According to Ford internal data, 2020 sales in Hungary were up 68.8% over 2019; sales in the Netherlands (38.5%), Denmark (12.5%), the Czech Republic (5.6%) and Austria (4%). (Ford Mustang Touts World’s Best-Selling Sports Car Tag, All-Electric Ford Mustang Mach-E ‘SUV’ Debuts in 2020, Milestones – Production of 10 Millionth Mustang, Ford Mustang Claimed as Most Popular Sports Car Globally, Right-Hand-Drive Mustang Testing Begins)

Footnotes

*IHS Markit global vehicle registrations are compiled from government and other sources and capture 95 percent of global new vehicle volumes in more than 80 countries. Sports cars, as defined by IHS Markit, include all vehicles in the IHS Markit Global Sports Car segment. Mustang is America’s best-selling sports car over the last 50 years, based on Ford analysis of 1966-2020 total U.S. new vehicle cumulative registrations for all sports car segments supplied by IHS Markit.