Toyota, BMW, Mercedes Named Top Auto Brands

Toyota Motor Corp. has retained its ranking as the world’s most valuable automotive brand. So says the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report by the London-based Millward Brown market research firm. 

The study says Toyota, which has topped the automotive list for nine of the past 11 years, is valued this year at $29.5 billion. The company ranks 28th on the overall list, which is headed by Google ($229.2 billion), Apple ($228.5 billion) and Microsoft ($121.8 billion).

Tesla Motors Inc. entered the automotive top-10 for the first time this year with an estimated brand value of $4.4 billion—virtually identical to 9th-place Porsche. Both are first-timers to the BrandZ list.

Other top-10 auto brands and their calculated value for 2016 are BMW ($26.8 billion), Mercedes-Benz ($22.7 billion), Honda, ($13.2 billion), Ford ($13.1 billion), Nissan ($11.5 billion) Audi ($9.5 billion) and Land Rover ($4.7 billion).