The cheapest performance car you can buy here, a revolutionary city EV from China, the rebirth of an iconic Volkswagen, a made-in-SIngapore car goes on sale, and more amazing stuff

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SINGAPORE

After a three-year, Covid-19 induced silence, the Singapore Motorshow made a comeback at the Suntec City Convention Centre over the second weekend of January 2023.

We have all the information about the show right here in this previously published news story, but after a full weekend of being knocked and jostled about by the Motorshow crowd, we also have our highlights.

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BMW M3 Touring

Very fast, kind of thirsty, and able to carry more things than a sedan, the BMW M3 Touring is now on sale in Singapore in limited numbers. Like the ‘standard’ M3 sedan, it has more than 500 horsepower from the turbocharged 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine. It may cost a heady S$560,888 with COE, but word is all of the cars allocated for Singapore have already been spoken for. 

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BYD Dolphin

The BYD Atto 3 has really been a jolt to the mainstream electric car scene here, and now the news is that the BYD Dolphin will arrive sometime this year. The small, all-electric hatchback is designed specially for urban use and will be right at home in Singapore. WIth a driving range of more than 400km per charge, it comfortably goes further than other small cars like the Opel Mokka-e and Peugeot e-2008. It may be the most sensible small car for Singaporean drivers moving forwards, but we’ll need to wait for the launch date and indicative price to be sure.

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Citroen e-C4

After a bit of a model drought, Citroen has been given a bit of a lift, first with the launch of the facelifted C5 Aircross, and followed swiftly with the e-C4. The small urban crossover SUV is all-electric and built upon the same platform as the Peugeot e-2008 and Opel Mokka-e. It could be the French brand’s major seller in the EV segment here. 

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Hyundai Ioniq 5

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 itself is technically already old news, but the big news is that the Hyundai Ioniq 5 officially going on sale in Singapore is actually assembled here. The winner of the 2022 World Car Awards, it is the first vehicle built on Hyundai’s new Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) and while the other news outlets may be broadcasting how the car is made in Singapore, we prefer to say that it is assembled here as after all the core design did not originate from Singapore. The car supports 800-volt charging and can be charged from zero to 80 percent in 18 minutes. The First 100 editions with special badging are available only through a charity auction that ends on 19 January 2023. 

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Subaru Impreza WRX

Whatever you think about it, the Subaru Impreza WRX is now back on sale in Singapore. Once the car of choice of boy-racers and driving ‘enthusiasts’ of all sorts in the 1990s, the car that built its reputation as a take-home version of the World Rally Championship winning car is now tamer and more mature. The power output of 275 horsepower from the turbocharged 2.4-litre engine still gives the car a gutsy, old-school turbo punch, but the manual transmission is gone, and in its place is a continuously variable transmission. Still want it? Prices start from S$246,800 with COE.

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Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid

Even the venerable Toyota Corolla isn’t immune to shifting trends, and the Corolla now has a crossover SUV variant. The hybrid version was launched at the Motorshow and sports a powerful 196 horsepower system power output. It’s the kind of car that SUV buyers love, because although it’s a small SUV on paper, in person it looks much larger and close to its big brother, the RAV4.

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Volkswagen ID.Buzz

The Volkswagen Combi has been reborn, as an all-electric van and MPV thing. We’ve seen spacey MPVs like the Hyundai Staria, gigantic movers like the Toyota Alphard, but all of them pale in comparison to the new Volkswagen ID.Buzz. 

It’s an electrified modern interpretation of the classic Kombi van. Available as a five or seven-seater passenger MPV, or also as the ID.Buzz Cargo commercial van with three seats in the front, the ID.Buzz features a 77kWh battery, developing 204hp and over 400km of range. There’s no word yet on the car’s on sale date yet, but initial probing at Volkswagen Singapore suggests a price tag starting from S$200k with COE once it becomes available for sale sometime this year.

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Plus: This is still the cheapest car for a driving enthusiast in Singapore

Spotted on display at the Singapore Motorshow was the Suzuki Swift Sport, almost flying under the radar amongst all the other models shouting for attention. Suzuki distributor Champion Motors has confirmed that there are still limited numbers of the compact hatchback available for sale in Singapore. Priced from $157,900 with COE, the car is available only with a manual six-speed transmission, and while the 127 horsepower turbo engine does not offer much in the way of outright power the car has a very finely balanced chassis for spirited cornering. It is also very well equipped, with hill holding assist and adaptive radar cruise control fitted as standard equipment.  

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