The brand’s impressive growth continued this year with its brand value up by 44% to US$46.0 billion, which saw it move from 6^th to 3^rd in the Brand Finance Automobile 100 2022 ranking. Tesla was the only brand in the Top 10 of the ranking to see significant growth this year.

Every year, Brand Finance puts 5,000 of the biggest brands to the test, and publishes nearly 100 reports, ranking brands across all sectors and countries.

The Brand Finance Automotive Industry 2022 report ranks the world’s top 100 most valuable and strongest automobile brands, the top 25 auto component brands, the top 15 tyre brands and the top 10 car rental service brands.

Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has played a huge part in the growth of the brand with his charismatic, and at times controversial, behaviour keeping it firmly in the limelight. Tesla’s transformation into a household name has seen other brands try to connect themselves to the brand to benefit from the Tesla effect.

2021 saw Tesla increase its footprint in China, to ensure it continues to compete in the booming Chinese market. It opened a new research and development centre, its first outside of America, in addition to a data centre at its Gigafactory in Shanghai.

The brand also built a second delivery centre in the city, which incorporates sales, test driving and delivery of Tesla vehicles. Looking to 2022, Tesla announced it would launch no new models this year due to the global chip shortage, as doing so would reduce its overall output. Instead, the brand will focus on its full self-driving software as well as scaling up its production capabilities.

Alex Haigh, Valuation Director at Brand Finance, says: A trend we expect to see within the automotive industry in the future is the growth of add-on and subscription services. Tesla is one of the brands at the forefront of this shift with its full self-driving software, which the brand estimates could eventually be worth more than the value of the car itself.”

Electric revolution sees Chinese brands surge

Chinese brands account for eight of the top 10 fastest-growing brands in the Brand Finance Automobile 100 2022 ranking. “

The increasing popularity and adoption of electric vehicles in China has been a key driver behind the impressive growth for these brands, with China accounting for most electric vehicles sold globally. Several Chinese brands are looking to capitalise on the momentum by expanding their global footprints, with several of these brands launching in Europe in 2021.

While Tesla has seen the fastest growth over the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Great Wall is the fastest-growing brand in the ranking this year, with its brand value increasing by an impressive 109% to US$2.6 billion.

As well as launching in Europe last year, Great Wall announced it will be launching nine electric vehicle models in Thailand over the next three years, where demand is expected to grow considerably. Great Wall plans to use Thailand as a base to launch its expansion into the ASEAN region. The auto marque’s CEO, Jianjun Wei, was also the top ranked automobile CEO in the Brand Finance Brand Guardianship Index 2022, which ranks the world’s top 250 Chief Executives according to how well they manage and grow their company’s brand, and placed third overall across all industries.

BYD was the second fastest-growing brand in the automotive ranking with its brand value doubling to US$6.4 billion, an increase which saw it overtake Haval (brand value up 55% to US$6.1 billion) to become China’s most valuable car brand. BYD, which specialises in electric vehicles, saw sales accelerating 232% in 2021 with 603,783 models sold – making it the best-selling new energy vehicle manufacturer in China for the ninth year.

Joining Great Wall and BYD in the Top 10 fastest-growing brands is Song (brand value up 90% to US$1.7 billion), Qin (up 89% to US$475 million), Tang (up 88% to US$630 million), NIO (up 79% to US$2.6 billion), Dongfeng (up 67% to US$1.4 billion), and WEY (up 56% to US$613 million).