Cars and Drivers

World's Most Valuable Car Brands

Paul Ausick

Published: September 25, 2017 11:45 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 7:51 am

Of the world’s top 100 brands, 15 belong to carmakers. Automobile ad spending accounted for nearly 20% of all spending by the world’s largest advertisers in 2015 — $47 billion of $240.5 billion in spending by the top 100 advertisers — according to a report last December from AdAge.

That’s a lot of money, and the automakers that are spending it are doing so because it produces results. A strong and valuable brand is among the results automakers expect from their ad spending.

Of the top 25 2015 ad buyers, automakers accounted for seven. Two of those seven, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, did not place one brand on the just-released Interbrand top 100 list — not Chevrolet and not Jeep, two of the auto world’s best known brands.

The top automakers’ brand position in Interbrand’s top 100 ranking and their brand values are listed here, along with their market cap and, in the case of five carmakers, their 2015 ad spending.

7. Toyota
> Brand value: $50.3 billion
> Market cap: $196.1 billion
> 2015 ad spending: $4.1 billion (12th overall)

9. Mercedes-Benz
> Brand value: $47.83 billion
> Market cap: $84.87 billion (Daimler)
> 2015 ad spending: $5.0 billion (seventh overall)

13. BMW
> Brand value: $41.52 billion
> Market cap: $65.6 billion
> 2015 ad spending: $3.1 billion (25th overall)

20. Honda
> Brand value: $22.7 billion
> Market cap: $53.6 billion
> 2015 ad spending: n/a

33. Ford
> Brand value: $13.64 billion
> Market cap: $47.48 billion
> 2015 ad spending: $4.3 billion (11th overall)

35. Hyundai
> Brand value: $13.19 billion
> Market cap: $32.91 billion
> 2015 ad spending: n/a

38. Audi
> Brand value: $12.02 billion
> Market cap: part of Volkswagen
> 2015 ad spending: n/a

39. Nissan
> Brand value: $11.53 billion
> Market cap: $43.5 billion
> 2015 ad spending: n/a

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40. Volkswagen
> Brand value: $11.52 billion
> Market cap: $84.3 billion
> 2015 ad spending: $6.6 billion (fourth overall)

48. Porsche
> Brand value: $10.13 billion
> Market cap: part of Volkswagen
> 2015 ad spending: n/a

69. Kia
> Brand value: $6.68 billion
> Market cap: $10.81 billion
> 2015 ad spending: n/a

73. Land Rover
> Brand value: $6.1 billion
> Market cap: part of Tata Motors
> 2015 ad spending: n/a

87. Mini
> Brand value: $5.11 billion
> Market cap: part of BMW Group
> 2015 ad spending: n/a

88. Ferrari
>Brand value: $4.9 billion
>Market cap: $21.1 billion
> 2015 ad spending: n/a

98. Tesla
> Brand value: $4.0 billion
> Market cap: $57.9 billion
> 2015 ad spending: n/a