Go back to page 1: Electrified cars are taking off in Singapore

2021’s top selling brands to date, and is it SUV or sedan as the most popular car type here? Find out!

The Top 10 – Electrified!

As always, the Top 10 best-selling brands in Singapore offer a great reflection of trends, and it’s obvious electrification is all over the top brands here with the sole exception of Mitsubishi.

From brand to brand it varies wildly, but on average, 7,963 of 23,697 or 33.6 percent of the top car sales here were electrified.

In the top 10, brands whose sales had the most electrified cars, by percentage, were Nissan, Toyota, and Audi. Outside of the top 10, stand-outs included Land Rover 62.8 percent (120 of 191 cars) and Suzuki 58 percent (128 of 221 cars).
 
Nissan was the most electrified brand in Singapore, with 923 of its total 1155 units (79.9 percent) registered here being electrified cars. No surprise since its E-Power hybrid system, which offers a ‘near-EV’ driving experience, has been a hit for the brand here in Singapore.

“Nissan’s commitment towards electrifying its entire passenger vehicle (PV) line-up in Singapore by 2023 is well on track with electrified models now making up 82 percent* of total passenger car sales,” Ron Lim, the head of sales and marketing for Nissan distributor Tan Chong Motor Sales, told CarBuyer.

*Tan Chong’s own sales of official Nissan cars, not counting parallel imports.

It’s a great example of a brand capitalising on the rule shift to electrification to boost sales – Nissan says its electrified models saw 300 percent year-on-year growth, most likely thanks to the Kicks E-Power in the trendy small SUV segment.

We’ve explained Toyota’s premacy thanks to its strong lineup of hybrids – it now has the Camry and Corolla Hybrid sedans, Prius+ MPV, the Harrier mid-sized SUV, the Yaris Cross small SUV.
55 percent of the cars Toyota sold were hybrids, sales of the BEV Lexus UX 300e sales aside.

Audi’s attention grabbing electric vehicle, the E-Tron, no doubt makes up some of the 610 cars moved, but the bulk of that is actually mild hybrids. Audi currently has the widest range of mild hybrids, since it’s proliferated the tech through nearly its entire lineup  – for example the A4, A6, A7, A8, Q5, Q7 and Q8 –  giving them an on-paper advantage over BMW and Mercedes. Its latest car is also a mild hybrid, and already a strong seller – the new A3 small luxury sedan/hatch.

Markus Schuster, Managing Director of Audi Singapore, told CarBuyer: “Audi has been progressively electrifying our range, from mild hybrids, up to full electric (BEVs). Today, you can find electrified powertrains from the newly launched A3, right up to the A8 flagship, from hatchbacks and sedans to SUVs, coupes and cabriolets. Next month, we will be launching our flagship e-tron GT electric car as well our first-ever RS electric model. We are consistently deepening our stakes to play a leading role on the road to e-mobility.”

The brands which had less electrification, such as Honda and Kia, fared less well compared to their closest rivals. Examples? Like Audi, the bulk of Mazda’s sales can be attributed to the Mazda 3 mild hybrid scoring well with a VES A2 discount. Kia could turn things around though – it just introduced its first mild hybrid in a popular shape – the Stonic small SUV.

There are outliers too, of course. Hyundai is a curious example – it has a mature lineup of electrified cars (the Ioniq and Kona are available as both fully-electric and hybrid versions) but less than five percent of its sales were electrified. It still did well though, since its very popular Avante sedan has a VES A2 rating. 

With the first half of 2021 already showing strongly for electrified vehicles, it’s clear Singapore is on a trajectory to displace purely combustion cars, and that’s good since it can’t happen soon enough. 

• 
  If you own an EV and live in a condominium, you need to read this
• 
  2024 Audi A3 30 TFSI MHEV Sportback First Drive Review: Friendlier Cat
• 
  New BYD showroom at Robinson 77, run by newly-appointed dealer, Harmony Auto
• 
  The new Category A Volkswagen Tiguan lessens pain in bum
• 
  Top 5 common EV charging problems and how to avoid them

[relatedCarsAdv]

Pages: 1 2