In a ranking of dozens of American cars, Tesla took the top spot over rivals from American giants like Ford and Jeep — but not for the reasons you might think.
The Cars.com American-Made Index, now in its 16th year, ranks dozens of American-made cars to determine which is the most "made in America" of all. It takes five primary factors into account: final assembly location, origin of parts, origin of engines, origin of transmissions, and manufacturing workforce.
To that end, Tesla's Fremont, California-made Model 3 sedan took the top spot — the first time ever for Tesla.
Ford's Mustang, made in Flat Rock, Michigan, took the second spot, while Tesla's Model Y SUV rounded out the third spot.
Ford and Tesla have come into increasingly close competition lately, with Ford's wildly successful Mustang Mach-E directly taking on Tesla in electric car sales. Ford's first all-electric Mustang made a big enough splash when it launched earlier this year that it immediately cut Tesla's market share in the electric car market by over 10%.
Despite the competition, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Ford CEO Jim Farley appear to share a mutual appreciation of each other.
"Tesla & Ford are the only American carmakers not to have gone bankrupt out of 1000's of car startups. Prototypes are easy, production is hard & being cash flow positive is excruciating,"Musk tweeted in March. "Respect," Farley said in response.
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