The CR-V Is Honda’s Best-Seller In 2026, And It’s Not Even Close

Americans Love the CR-V

American Honda (AHM) has just posted its sales figures for the first half of 2026, and the 2026 Honda CR-V is dominating the sheets. June sales are up 17% for Honda, with the brand moving a total of 133,781 units and marking its best June in five years.

In total, AHM moved 756,920 Honda and Acura units in H1 of this year, thanks to its current lineup of cars, but mostly thanks to the CR-V. For every 10 units Honda and Acura moved, you could say 3 of them were CR-Vs, with the model accounting for 29.87% of total sales in the first half of 2026.

It's Not Even Close

Across the board, not just for Honda, Americans are loving the compact two-row SUVs that the market can't get enough of. It's not just Honda; even Toyota is struggling to meet demand for the segment with the RAV4.

Honda posted a record total of 226,114 units of the Honda CR-V, marking an all-time best first half for the model, and beating its previous record by 6%. The CR-V also posted its best first quarter, surpassing the previous sales peak by 16%. On top of all that, this is the best June Honda has ever had for its compact SUV, with sales up 30% from before.

Focusing on Honda alone, it's nearly 1:1 versus the rest of the compact SUVs in the lineup. If you factor in the Accord, Civic and Prelude, the CR-V accounted for 32% of all total sales. The numbers get even more staggering when you bring Acura into the mix because the entire division moved less than a third of the CR-V's total sales, 69,715 units versus 226,114 units for H1 of 2026.

For passenger cars, which include the Civic, Accord, and Prelude, Honda moved 224,231 units from the beginning of 2026 to the end of June, still less than the CR-V's total H1 2026 sales. Like I said, not even close.

Over Half Were Hybrids

Honda's CR-V sales breakdown also reveals that the market could be shifting toward electrified mobility, as the CR-V Hybrid outsold the ICE-only variant. AHM accounted for 124,017 units sold in the first half of 2026, representing 55% of total CR-V sales.

The electric shift is also happening across the board because AHM reported that 43% of all Accord sales were hybrids and 30% of all Civic sales were hybrids. What gets even wilder is that Honda CR-V Hybrid sales in the first half of this year alone outsold the entire Acura division, with 124,017 units versus 69,715. Talk about a landslide.

"CR-V Is #1 SUV in America"

Not to take anything away from Acura, but it's just not even close: the CR-V is nowhere near anything else in Honda's sales report for H1 of this year. The model's dominance may be attributed to the shortage of Toyota RAV4s, rising gasoline prices, and just being a dependable product in general.

For years, the CR-V has been a best-seller for Honda, as American buyers love the body style and the name brand. Going into the second half of 2026, if Honda's able to improve sales further, it may be on track to unseat the RAV4 for best SUV. In 2025, Honda was down about 70,000 units compared t RAV4 sales that year; Honda only moved 403,768 units in 2025 versus 479,288 RAV4s, but 2026 could tell a very different story.

If Toyota RAV4 sales continue to slump, perhaps the CR-V could take the crown in America. The title of #1 SUV in America that Honda claimed still has an asterisk, though, and we have the 2nd half of the year to get through.

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