Singapore’s Most Popular Car Brands of 2021
Derryn Wong
14:35 January 26,2022
Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW lead, but a shock debut from Tesla. We analyse the Top 10 car brands of Singapore in 2021
Graphic by Caraphina Taib
SINGAPORE - The best-selling car brands for Singapore last year, 2021, were Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW. No colossal eye-opener there, but as usual, there’s plenty of rumbling beneath the surface as we take a deeper dive into the Top 10.
The total registration figures are in, and here are the top car brands for Singapore in 2021. As always, our figures are derived directly from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and do not discriminate between official sales and parallel imports.
If you want to compare how the brands did at the half-way mark of 2021, read our mid-year sales analysis story.
2021's Car Market : The Background
The first thing to know as a background to 2021’s sales figures is that we didn’t see a dramatic shrinking in overall passenger car sales. We’ve expected one for some time, due to the nature of Singapore’s Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system. As the majority of cars on the roads are less than five years old or nowhere near the 10-year mark, we won’t see many deregistrations, and hence, we expected a smaller COE quota, which leads to a smaller new car market.
But 2021 saw a chunk of COEs held over from 2020’s Circuit Breaker, so the total car sales in 2021 was 45,442, not a huge difference from 2020’s 44,465, but still a big step down from 2019’s 72,344, not to mention 2017’s 91,922. So keep that in mind when looking at the relative sales figures and market share percentages between 2020 and 2021. The expectation for 2022 is that cheapskates might help offset the COE quota plunge too.
Towards the end of 2021, the dreaded spectre we have all been waiting for finally revealed itself once more, with shrinking COE quotas driving prices toward multi-year highs - although this time around Category A has remained, thankfully, quite a bit less than Category B.
There’s also one more spin to take into account: Some brands may have taken plenty of orders, but have been unable to fulfill all of them in 2021 itself due to the chip shortage and production delays.
Toyota On Top
The Japanese carmaker was once again the unanimous leader of the market, and it even grew its market lead in the last six months of 2021, going from 20.06 percent to 21.21 percent - again, just over one in five cars sold here last year was a Toyota.
Unlike most of the top 10 brands, Toyota was able to improve its sales from 2020, and in a significant proportion as well, going from 7,704 units registered to 9,633 units, an increase of
25 percent. In the process it boosted its market share 3.9 points, from 17.3 percent to 21.2 percent, a feat no other brand was able to match - even the shock outsider (more below)*.
“We are thrilled that Toyota has achieved such a stellar performance amidst challenging times. This great honour is testament to the commitment of our team who pursue on a daily basis our mission to build an inclusive and sustainable ecosystem,” said Jasmmine Wong, Inchcape CEO for Greater China & Singapore. Inchcape is the parent company of Borneo Motors which is the authorised Toyota dealer for Singapore.
As we mentioned in our analysis of the first six months’ results for 2021, Toyota’s exceptionally on-trend in the market with a range of SUVs and hybrids, both trends which have really taken off in the past couple of years. The Yaris Cross and Harrier (which are hybrid SUVs) have drawn major buyer interest - our Top 10 Reviews and Most Watched Videos reflect as much. Another hybrid that caused waves was the Toyota Camry Hybrid sedan whose VES benefits made it one of the least expensive cars in the large sedan segment.
Most of the cars Toyota sold here in 2021 were hybrids. It sold 5,557 electrified cars in 2021, or 58 percent of its 9,366 total registrations. All of these were petrol-electric hybrids, since Toyota, like most Japanese brands, has yet to bring full electric cars to market.
But with full electric cars still growing but nowhere near a dominant trend, at this early stage it hasn’t hurt the brand at all. Rather the opposite, because the updated VES has made hybrid cars effectively level in price - or even cheaper - than pure gasoline versions. For 2022, we could see the brand’s first full-electric car, the BZ4X, here in Singapore but at the moment there is no confirmation of it for 2022.
*Lexus sales are still folded into Toyota’s numbers for some strange reason, and we figure Lexus sold at least 600 cars last year.
Sales performance: 9/10
Electrification score: 6/10
Electron Star
If Toyota in first is no surprise, Mercedes-Benz is even less of a shock in second place on the charts, as it replicates not only its 2021 half-mark result, but also 2020’s rankings. As we’ve seen from those results, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz are the most popular brands here by some margin to the rest of the Top 10 - though as you’ll read next, the final podium finisher has gotten much closer.
Although it was the only podium finisher to sell fewer cars in 2021 than 2020, once again Mercedes-Benz is the top-selling luxury car brand in Singapore.
“We are pleased that Mercedes-Benz continues to be one of Singapore’s most-loved luxury brands. The fact that we’ve enjoyed continued success in the automotive sector for years now is testament to the extent of trust that Singaporean consumers place in our brand, and our products,” Mr Claudius Steinhoff, President and CEO of Daimler South East Asia/Mercedes-Benz Singapore’.
Overall sales dropped 140 units from 6,561 to 6,421, with a reduction of market share of just half a point.
2021 saw Mercedes-Benz launch more than a few vehicles, the most significant of which was the new-gen of its flagship S-Class, and the updated large sedan E-Class. While those are important models for the brand, they’re not exactly volume sellers like the A-Class and GLA/GLB (launched in 2020), which could account for the relatively flat sales the brand saw. But it’s a testament to expectations of the three-pointed star that no increase in sales is seen as a disappointment.
One area where Mercedes stood out, and where its glitzy reputation shows, is coupes. It sold 763 coupes/convertibles in 2021, making it far and away the largest purveyor of two-doored cars. BMW was second with 263, and Porsche third with 198.
Mercedes-Benz also upped the electric ante, selling 1,103 electrified passenger cars here, or 17 percent of its 6,421 tally. “The growing portfolio of electrified cars and its sales are points of encouragement for us, especially since the infrastructure for electric cars is still in its nascent stages in Singapore,” said Mr Steinhoff.
On the electric front, Mercedes kicked off its Mercedes-EQ efforts with the electric SUVs, the EQA and EQC, the latter being the brand’s first fully electric car here. Both those cars were serious flag-wavers for Mercedes-EQ here, and they did as much at Singapore’s first and largest showcase of electric vehicles, EV Weekend. But we expect most of Merc’s 1,103 electrified registrations to have been of its mild-hybrid cars including the C-Class, E-Class, and S-Class.
And while it doesn’t have as many PHEVs as BMW does, Mercedes is one of the few brands that allow customers to run the gamut from mild hybrid to plug-in hybrid, and then to full electric power, which accounts for its good Electrification Score.
Sales performance: 7/10
Electrification score: 7/10
What does Mercedes-Benz have in store for Singapore in 2022? The new electric flagship EQS ought to raiseeyebrows, but there’s also the EQE and EQB, and lots more. Oh and there's already a new C-Class in town...
Page 2: BMW's top in electrification, 'Elongated' shock, and knife fights down the order
Page 1: 2021's market trends, the Top Two brands
Being Mega Wired
If raw registration figures are what we go by, BMW has done well for itself by improving one position and re-entering the Top Three. It boosted its sales by 906 units in 2021, for a total of 5,255, giving it 11.6 percent market share, an uptick of 1.82 percent, all impressive achievements for a flat market year.
BMW’s strong sellers this year were its core range, including the 5 Series and 3 Series, and its SUVs the X1 and X3, and chip shortages didn’t hamper its performance much. Its eye-ball catching model for 2021, the 4 Series (in coupe, convertible, and four-door Gran Coupe body styles) also exceeded sales expectations.
“In 2021, we were faced with unexpected challenges from the ongoing pandemic, supply chain issues and other external factors. Despite these challenges, we managed to further digitalize the business, improve our customer touch points to make them more engaging and memorable, and brought to market a number of new and exciting models. Therefore, it is fantastic to see all our hard work has paid off and we’ve managed to be the third biggest car brand in Singapore,” Mr Lars Nielsen, the Managing Director of BMW Group Asia, told CarBuyer.
There’s also a twist like last year, though. While CarBuyer uses the LTA’s overall registration figures, if you count purely authorised unit sales (not parallel imports) BMW has the second spot over Mercedes-Benz - but that’s the parallel universe interpretation, so to speak.
Yet just as important to raw sales figures now is the evolution toward electrification, and BMW is clearly one of the leaders among the established car brands. The German brand’s seven-year absence from battery electric vehicles ended with a bright spark thanks to the BMW iX3.
“The iX3 was launched in July 2021 and sold out in months, leaving behind a long list of customers eager to secure the iX3 facelift version launched in November. We also saw immediate demand for the iX which only debuted in December. It’s inspiring to see more and more drivers in Singapore making the switch to EVs, and I’m excited to say we have more models coming their way in 2022,” said Mr Nielsen.
No surprise there since CarBuyer immediately singled out the iX3 as the cheapest X3 around, despite its EV nature, and reported it as the best X3 of them all after our test drive. BMW also launched its new tech flagship, the iX, and it made a big splash debuting at EV Weekend 2021. But in sales terms, it’s a S$400k with COE car and it arrived in December, so its impact on numbers hasn’t been as large.
Of its 5,255 registrations in 2021, 900 were electrified cars - or 17 percent. Not super impressive sales figures, but keep in mind that BMW has one of the widest range of PHEVs on hand (330e, 530e, 745 Le, and more) plus full EVs, so it’s planted its flag high in the EV race. At this point in time, any electrification consumers can get their hands on worry-free is good, and BMW is showing how it should be done.
Sales score: 8/10
Electrification Score: 8/10
Elon-gated Shock
In 2021 though, something happened which I’ve not seen in my 15 years as a motoring journalist: A brand making an official debut and immediately cracking the Top 10. In this case, it was Tesla with its total of 924 registrations and that was just enough for it to push Volkswagen (915 registrations) out of the Top 10.
Even more impressive is the fact that this all happened in the second half of the year. Tesla made its official debut in February and only began deliveries in March, so the 30-ish units registered before then were parallel imports. The allure of the American EV company is no doubt driven by the company’s immense (and very overblown) stock market valuation plus Head Alien Elon Musk’s various tech ventures including SpaceX, but the key draw here has been the very competitive pricing and novel driving experience.
What we want to see is how long the novelty will last and if the brand can sustain this excellent performance - it might too, with the mid-sized SUV Model Y coming this year.
Slicing The Pie
As typical, outside of the podium - or even the Top Five - the sales figures drop off precipitously and competition becomes very close, like everyone brought a knife to a knife fight. To put this to perspective, the top five brands here took 63.8 percent of the market. The higher you get the more the numbers impress - Toyota’s total electrified registrations are more than Hyundai and Mazda’s total, combined.
Honda slipped a rank to fourth position, something we saw during the last High COE cycle circa 2011-2013. This time around, Honda’s lack of larger cars with price competitive hybrid systems could have hurt its chances - it has no direct competitor to Toyota’s Camry and Harrier Hybrids, whose VES rebates help offset their expensive Category B COEs. But it just launched the new HR-V, which could help its sales even if the regular gasoline model is going to be the mainstay rather than the hybrid.
Audi slipped one rung on the ladder, with its registrations going from 2,228 to 1,975, around 11 percent less. In 2021 the brand’s major car was the A3 sedan/hatch, a traditional mainstay, but the lack of a Cat A model - unlike the previous-gen car - could have hampered sales, especially with Cat B going almost to the moon toward the second half of the year.
But Audi can be proud that it’s scored well when it comes to electrification: Of the 1,975 cars it sold, 1,056 of them were electrified, or 53 percent. And while we haven’t exhaustively analysed every luxury brand, it’s very likely Audi stands at the top of the table when it comes to electrification amongst luxury brands. Almost all of its cars from the small class and above are mild hybrids, with the headliners being the E-Tron range and of course the unmissable E-Tron GT.
Nissan was another stand-out here: Of its 1,821 cars sold, 1,519 were electrified cars from its hybrid E-Power range - a staggering 83 percent. The thing is, Nissan only has three hybrid models - the Kicks, Note, and Serena, but it goes to show that even that is enough as long as they’re priced just right. Nissan increased it sales from 1,578 to 1,821 in 2021, earning a promotion to eighth.
2022’s Crystal Ball
High COE prices will be here to stay, although they will be tempered by de-registrations of five-year (non-renewable) COEs. But high COEs trend to pushing mainstream brands out of the market, and the reverse is true for luxury brands.
But electrification and premium-ness has evolved since 2013. Mazda and Kia are good examples, with both brands having premium, large SUVs like the CX-8 and Sorento. Kia, in particular, launched the big MPV Carnival last year to decent sales, and this year will be debuting the rather exciting EV6. The latter will be an interesting case study into branding: If Tesla is anything to go by, maybe the new-ness of electrification means old brand values aren’t as important.
About the Author
Derryn Wong
CarBuyer's former chief editor was previously the editor for Top Gear Singapore and a presenter for CNA's Cruise Control motoring segment.
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