Singapore Car Sales By Brand : 2015

Honda is #2 In Singapore for 2015

Sales about doubled in 2015, which sounds impressive. However, against a backdrop of four years of pitiful sales puts 2015 into perspective. In 2006, registrations reached 117,000. It comes down to COEs, or certificates of entitlement. The government only issues so many and they are bid for by those desirous of buying a new car. The amount available depends mainly on how many cars were scrapped or taken off the road. It's all about controlling the number of cars on the road.

When COEs are scarce, they get expensive which makes mainstream cars too dear. Premium marques then take more of the reduced market. When they are more plentiful, everyday cars then make a comeback. We can see this well illustrated below.

The last few years of low sales meant that BMW and Mercedes Benz became the biggest selling makes. Now COE numbers are up, Toyota, Honda and Nissan have taken back the top three places. I assume car importers of mainstream brands watch how the supply of COEs will go the following year and then orders cars accordingly. The whole thing makes cars horrendously expensive, but it keeps the roads from getting congested. With a good public transport system and Singapore covering a small area, the car isn't essential anyway.

If you look at the colours, green show market gain and mainly regular brands are shaded so. Dark blue is for increase but loss of share and premium marques frequent that hue. Yellow is for decrease.

11	12	13	14	15	Brand	2015	%	+/-
3	3	3	1	1	Toyota	12,172	21.1%	124.1%
8	11	11	8	2	Honda	7,916	13.7%	413.7%
10	8	8	6	3	Nissan	5,574	9.7%	204.8%
2	2	1	2	4	Mercedes	5,408	9.4%	16.3%
18	18	7	5	5	Mazda	5,287	9.2%	168.8%
1	1	2	3	6	BMW	3,607	6.3%	11.1%
4	4	4	4	7	VW	3,056	5.3%	21.2%
5	5	5	7	8	Audi	2,093	3.6%	33.7%
6	6	10	10	9	Hyundai	1,805	3.1%	107.7%
22	21	18	12	10	Subaru	1,668	2.9%	166.0%
7	9	15	11	11	Kia	1,586	2.8%	111.7%
23	29	30	25	12	Mitsubishi	1,379	2.4%	n/a
9	7	6	9	13	Volvo	1,274	2.2%	40.0%
16	16	20	17	14	Citroën	686	1.2%	152.2%
12	12	13	13	15	Porsche	589	1.0%	57.1%
13	10	14	18	16	Peugeot	525	0.9%	129.3%
14	14	9	14	17	Jaguar	386	0.7%	13.2%
11	13	16	16	18	Chevrolet	361	0.6%	23.2%
21	15	12	15	19	Land Rover	350	0.6%	17.1%
20	17	17	19	20	Ford	323	0.6%	55.3%
19	22	22	21	21	Renault	316	0.5%	152.8%
15	19	19	20	22	MINI	295	0.5%	52.8%
17	20	24	22	23	Suzuki	257	0.4%	140.2%
42	27	28	24	24	Infiniti	222	0.4%	144.0%
26	25	27	27	25	Maserati	75	0.1%	33.9%
39	39	38	32	26	Ssangyong	73	0.1%	461.5%
30	24	21	26	27	Bentley	66	0.1%	-5.7%
29	23	23	23	28	Opel	63	0.1%	-38.2%
25	26	25	29	29	Ferrari	41	0.1%	32.3%
33	34	29	30	30	Chrysler	34	0.1%	25.9%
32	32	34	28	31	Alfa Romeo	31	0.1%	-11.4%
36	32	26	31	32	Rolls Royce	20		5.3%
					Others	31
					Total	57,589		99.0%

Data source: LTA.

Toyota is the best selling brand