The definitive and annual list is here from American University.
The annual ranking of most American-made automobiles is here again from American University. And its top model in 2024 may surprise you: the Tesla Model 3 Performance. An electric vehicle (EV)! In fact, Tesla took the top four spots on the list, after taking the top two spots in 2023.
“Tesla was nowhere when I first started doing this 13 years ago,” said Frank DuBois, the person behind the rankings. “They didn’t show up in any index until a few years later.”
DuBois, a professor at AU’s Kogod School of Business, first produced the Kogod Made In America Auto Index in 2013 as an improvement on the data collected by the American Automotive Labeling Act (AALA).
“I tried to bring in these other factors,” he explains in a Q&A, “like where did the research and development take place? What percentage of the value of the car is from R&D? What percentage of the car is U.S.-sourced labor? Where does the transmission come from? Where is inventory coming from? Where is the engine, and the body, interior, and intellectual part of that?
“So, basically, I was adding more variables to the calculation over and above just looking at U.S. and Canadian sourcing.”
Now, with over a decade of data to draw from and compare to, you can see how production shifts change over time. For example, foreign-owned brands like Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan and Honda have all increased their U.S. content since 2015 while domestic companies GM, Ford and Stellantis (which is technically European, but owns Chrysler) have decreased their domestic content levels. Keep in mind, these increases and decreases are relatively small – for instance, Nissan’s total domestic content went from 22% to 24%, while Ford’s decreased from 65% to 54% – but it’s still notable.
The report’s not perfect, DuBois admits. The introduction of EVs into the marketplace has caused some hiccups.
“One of the deficiencies I have here are the electric vehicles and how to account for how American they are,” he says. “For example, I currently assign a particular percentage for the transmission: 7 percent of the value of the car is transmission. Fourteen percent of the value of the vehicle is the engine. But electric cars are different because they’ve got motors and batteries. The transmission is basically the motor. You’re trying to compare apples and oranges. And then you get into hybrids, and that’s another monster.”
Nevertheless, the Kogod Made In America Auto Index is thorough and comprehensive. It’s got 374 models on it, ranked from first to worst. There are a couple dozen Volvos, BMWs, Kias and models from Mercedes-Benz in a tie for last place. You can read more about this year’s index here.