SINGAPORE - Toyota has overtaken Mercedes-Benz and reclaimed its throne in new cars registered, beating the German brand by merely seven units in 2023.

Borneo Motors, the authorised agent for Toyota, had registered 3,857 cars – including an undisclosed number under luxury sub-brand Lexus – as at end-2023, according to Land Transport Authority statistics.

Cycle & Carriage, the authorised agent for Mercedes, registered 3,850 units, followed by BMW with 3,379.

In 2022, Mercedes-Benz was Singapore’s best-selling car brand, eclipsing Toyota and BMW for the first time in several years.

The annual tally excludes sales by parallel importers, which source their vehicles from dealers overseas.

The 10 best-selling brands remained largely unchanged in 2023 from a year earlier, except for Audi, which failed to make the list by just a handful of cars.

Electric vehicles (EVs) gained ground in 2023, with 5,467 units registered. They accounted for 18.1 per cent of the 30,225 new cars put on the road in 2023, up from 11.7 per cent in 2022.

Among EVs, BYD was by far the leader, with 1,416 units sold, followed by Tesla (941), BMW (789), Hyundai (694) and Mercedes (537). The Chinese brand was in fact a newcomer in the overall bestsellers’ list, emerging fourth in sales with only three models – all electric.

And among the bestsellers, BYD had the biggest increase in market share of 2.2 percentage points, while brands like Toyota, Mercedes and BMW posted dips in market share.

Toyota picked up speed in the second half, with the July-to-December period accounting for 60 per cent of its new car sales. At least 30 per cent of its sales are to fleet operators.

Mr Ng Khee Siong, managing director of Inchcape Singapore, to which Borneo Motors belongs, said: “We are very proud to be the market leader of 2023 and to regain our position as the top-selling car brand in Singapore.”

Toyota’s best-selling models were petrol-electric hybrids, including the Corolla Cross, which was launched in January 2023.

“The popularity of hybrid vehicles will increase even further in 2024,” said Mr Ng, adding that the company will expand the range of hybrid models, as well as its range of electric cars, which have so far been limited to the Lexus stable.

Mercedes-Benz Singapore president Claudius Steinhoff said: “We are delighted that Mercedes-Benz remains as Singapore’s best-selling luxury car brand in 2023. We thank consumers for their steadfast interest in Mercedes-Benz through the years.”

He added that 2024 would be a “momentous year” as the brand concentrates “on the top-end segment”.

Mr Anthony Teo, managing director of BYD distributor Vantage Automotive, said: “We are indeed thankful for the strong support and great product offerings from BYD and the close collaboration with our dealers to reach out to more customers with our extensive network islandwide.”

Vantage Automotive has around half a dozen BYD dealers in Singapore.

Tesla was the other electric-only brand to make it to the top 10 list, although its ranking fell from sixth in 2022 to ninth in 2023.

Meanwhile, parallel imports had a 21.2 per cent share of the new car market in 2023, versus 20.6 per cent in 2022.

The brand with the highest proportion of sales from parallel imports was Honda, with 74 per cent of total sales being parallel imports.

Other brands with a high percentage of sales from parallel imports include Rolls-Royce (60 per cent), Suzuki (40 per cent) and Toyota (25 per cent).

Veteran parallel importer Neo Nam Heng said the outlook for Japanese models looks bleak in 2024. “There is a shortage of supply in Japan. There is a one-year wait for models like the Toyota Noah and Voxy, and much longer for something like the Toyota Vellfire.”

The chairman of diversified motor group Prime, which also sells parallel-imported Toyota and Honda cars, said: “I hear that manufacturers are giving priority to overseas markets and that is why the domestic supply in Japan is smaller. Plus the pent-up demand after Covid-19 – there are not enough cars now.”

But Mr Neo added that there is no supply issue for German cars.