The most American-made car is a truck – the 2020 Ford Ranger. Cars.com's American-Made Index is based on an annual study that analyzes assembly location, parts content, drivetrain sourcing and factory employment to rank the most American-made cars, pickup trucks and SUVs.
“Atop the 2020 American-Made Index is the Ford Ranger, a nameplate resurrected in the U.S. market for the 2019 model year,” Cars.com reports. “With increased U.S. parts sourcing for its 2.3L four-cylinder engine, the Ranger’s U.S. and Canadian parts content reached 70% for the 2020 model year, with majority-U.S. origins for its engine and transmission. It topped the Jeep Cherokee and Tesla Model S to rank as the No. 1 vehicle on the 2020 index.”
Five of the 20 most-American vehicles are trucks; four mid-sized pickups and the half-ton Toyota Tundra:
2020 Chevrolet Colorado
1. Ford Ranger (assembled in Wayne, Mich.)
6. Honda Ridgeline (Lincoln, Ala.)
10. Chevrolet Colorado (Wentzville, Mo.)
11. GMC Canyon (Wentzville, Mo.)
16. Toyota Tundra (San Antonio)
The next pickup trucks on the list were:
40. Jeep Gladiator (Toledo, Ohio)
44. Ford F-150 (assembled in Dearborn, Mich., and Claycomo, Mo.)
47. Ram 1500 (Sterling Heights, Mich.)
55. Nissan Titan (Canton, Miss.)
63. Ram 1500 Classic (Warren, Mich.)*
77. Chevrolet Silverado 1500 (Roanoke, Ind.)*
85. GMC Sierra 1500 (Roanoke, Ind.)*
*Some vehicles also come from one or more assembly plants outside the country.
Cars.com is a digital automotive marketplace and solutions provider, and has been issuing its American-Made Index (AMI) for 15 years. The AMI is an independent annual list that ranks the new vehicles that contribute most to the U.S. economy based on criteria ranging from U.S. factory jobs and manufacturing plants to parts sourcing.
"This marks the 15th year we have released the American-Made Index, and for the first time, we are ranking a full, comprehensive list of qualifying American-made cars available in the U.S. Of some 350 cars on the market for 2020, 91 models qualified for our index," said Kelsey Mays, Cars.com's senior consumer affairs and vehicle evaluations editor. "The auto industry is highly globalized, but these 91 models bring jobs to America and investments to our local communities — a growing concern for Americans in the current climate."
A 2020 American-Made Index survey of consumers found that 70% of shoppers consider a car's U.S. economic impact a significant or deciding factor in their vehicle purchase; that's up from 66% who indicated the same in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has further impacted Americans' desire to "buy local." The survey found that nearly 40% of consumers report they are more likely to buy an American-made car due to the current health and economic crisis, while just 4% said they were less likely. And a whopping 26% said it was "unpatriotic" to buy a non-American-made car, compared to just 18% in 2019.
With rising interest in buying American amid the economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cars.com has changed its methodology and expanded its rankings to all qualified cars built in the U.S.
In total, the 2020 American-Made Index ranks cars from 13 automakers built in 14 states.
