No Full-Size Truck Ranked Among the 10 Most American-Made Vehicles for 2024
No vehicle segment better symbolizes the US of A than the truck. Seriously, America is pretty much baseball, apple pie, and pickups. So it might shock some to learn that the pickup truck is far from the most American-made vehicle segment. When Cars.com ranked the makes and models that could most rightfully claim to be made in the U.S.A., no full-size truck even made the top ten (though two midsize ones made it). Number 19 was the Ram 1500 Classic, while the Toyota Tundra came in at #20. Here are the rankings.
| Rank | Model | Assembly Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tesla Model Y | Austin, TX & Fremont, CA |
| 2 | Honda Passport | Lincoln, AL |
| 3 | Volkswagen ID.4 | Chattanooga, TN |
| 4 | Tesla Model S | Fremont, CA |
| 5 | Honda Odyssey | Lincoln, AL |
| 6 | Honda Ridgeline | Lincoln, AL |
| 7 | Toyota Camry | Georgetown, KY |
| 8 | Jeep Gladiator | Toledo, OH |
| 9 | Tesla Model X | Fremont, CA |
| 10 | Lexus TX | Princeton, IN |
| 11 | Toyota Highlander | Princeton, IN |
| 12 | Acura RDX | East Liberty, OH |
| 13 | Honda Accord | Marysville, OH |
| 14 | Honda Pilot | Lincoln, AL |
| 15 | Acura MDX | East Liberty, OH |
| 16 | Toyota Grand Highlander | Princeton, IN |
| 17 | Acura Integra | Marysville, OH |
| 18 | Acura TLX | Marysville, OH |
| 19 | Ram 1500 Classic | Warren, MI |
| 20 | Toyota Tundra | San Antonio, TX |
So how in the world did Cars.com come up with these rankings? It primarily used information the Automobile Labeling Act requires automakers to print on window stickers of new “light duty vehicles” for sale. One important note is that they don’t need to disclose much about their heavy duty trucks, so there wasn’t enough information to even rank those. And that includes Tesla’s Cybertruck, which is assembled in Texas.
What’s the information Cars.com considers? The first four categories, all printed on the window stickers, are location of final assembly, country of origin of the engine, country of origin of the transmission, and percentage of overall components that come from the U.S. or Canada. Why U.S. or Canada? Because this is how the ALA is written. The fifth and final category is the number of manufacturing employees in the U.S., as compared to the company’s total size.
Cars.com looked at 400 models of cars, crossovers, SUVs, and trucks. It found that 100 of these were assembled in the U.S., of mostly parts from the U.S. and Canada, so it ranked these from most to least “American-made.”
As you can see, Tesla and Honda absolutely dominate the top ten. It may be surprising to see how many foreign automakers have factories here in the U.S. But the truth is that various tariffs have done their job, making it financially beneficial to set up shop in the US of A. In fact, the number of factories in the U.S. since the Cars.com’s 2020 list has gone up 144%. That’s a lot of jobs!
Here’s how various trucks ranked: (#23) Chevrolet Colorado, (#24) GMC Canyon, (#38) Hyundai Santa Cruz, (#43) Ram 1500, (#56) Ford F-150 Lightning EV, (#58) Ford F-150, (#67) Nissan Frontier, (#75) Ford F-150 hybrid, (#89) Chevrolet Silverado 1500, (#90) GMC Sierra 1500.
Again, automakers don’t publish much data on heavy-duty pickup trucks. But all heavy-duty Ford Super Duty trucks are assembled in the U.S. All heavy-duty Rams are assembled in Mexico. GM assembles all heavy-duty trucks in the U.S., but assembles some half-ton trucks in Mexico and some in Canada.
Curious where your truck comes from? Your VIN will tell you. If its first number is 1, 4, or 5, that vehicle was assembled in the U.S. If the first digit is 2, it comes from Canada. And a 3 means it came from Mexico. A “J” stands for Japan.
Next, find out why the least American-made pickup truck has the most star-spangled name, or see just how American-made your vehicle is in the video below:
