The best-selling SUV in the country is made in North America with a Japanese badge
Toyota operates 11 manufacturing plants in the United States. They roll out many of the most popular vehicles in the country, like the Toyota Tacoma and Corolla. And when it comes to the best-selling SUV in the country, the Toyota RAV4 can trace its origins to Georgetown, Kentucky. But only if it’s a hybrid.
America’s best-selling SUV is the Toyota RAV4, a Japanese vehicle built in America (and Canada)
Nearly 10,000 auto workers build vehicles 20 miles north of Lexington, Kentucky. No, it’s not the Ford F-Series at the Ford Truck Plant (FTP). It’s Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK), a massive manufacturing plant and home to the hybrid version of the best-selling SUV in the United States, the Toyota RAV4.
However, the Kentucky manufacturing plant only builds the hybrid variant of the RAV4. Drivers of the ICE models in North America can likely trace their SUV’s origins to Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) in Woodstock, Ontario.
Last year, Americans bought 475,193 of the Toyota SUV, making it the best-selling SUV in the country by a wide margin. It outsold the Honda CR-V by 72,402 units in 2024. Even the wildly popular Tesla Model Y fell short of the RAV4’s sales by nearly 70,000 vehicles.
In addition to claiming the top spot among SUVs, the Toyota RAV4 dethroned the Ford F-150 as the best-selling vehicle from any segment. It was a title the F-150 held for over 40 years. Of course, the small SUV is hopeless to outsell the F-Series as a whole.
The biggest Toyota plant in the world
Beyond building the best-selling SUV in the country, the TMMK has a bragging right among Toyota’s plants. Specifically, TMMK is the largest Toyota plant on the planet, taking up an astounding 9.0 million square feet of Georgetown, Kentucky.
Still, all that space isn’t exclusively devoted to the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. Instead, the Japanese brand builds several hybrids, including the Camry Hybrid and Lexus ES 300h. Toyota says its TMMK staff can produce over half a million vehicles per year, including the RAV4 Hybrid. However, one of the RAV4’s fellow green vehicles, the Avalon Hybrid, left production in 2022.
