The release of LTA's mid-year data for new car registration can only mean one thing: The time is nigh for us to put together a leaderboard of how our favourite car brands have performed in the first half of the year.

And so we did. As you'll see, the names you'll find on these lists will not surprise many… or will they? Against the list we pieced together for overall registrations last year, the brands that have muscled their way into Top 10 have mostly remained — including our evergreen Top 3 of Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and BMW — except for one German heavyweight ceding its place to a relatively new Asian name. 

The Top 3 thus far has still been led by Singapore's favourite names, with the following brands placing atop in order: Toyota (including Lexus), Mercedes-Benz, and BMW

One that's picked up a fair bit of buzz, and also — big hint here — made a number of splashes recently…

The Top 10 for H1 2023

Enjoying a bumper half-year thus far, BYD continues its impressive performance from the previous year (and despite the challenging COE climate) to edge its way into the Top 10 for H1 2023. 

It's still too early to definitively say whether the all-electric Chinese carmaker will retain this accolade through till year-end.

BYD's recently launched Dolphin joins its popular Atto 3, which was reintroduced this year with a retuned powertrain that allowed it slot into Category A 

Nonetheless, bear in mind that BYD has also just recently launched the BYD Dolphin (you can read our in-depth review of it here) — which currently holds the title as Singapore's cheapest all-electric passenger car — and things are boding well for the firm. 

As for who has ceded its place in the Top 10 — again, purely based on the past six months — the answer lies just below.

The rest of the Top 25

Registering 328 units overall — and just five shy of 10th-placed Hyundai, Audi comes in at Number 11 for the mid-year leaderboard. The brand placed 9th overall in 2022, just ahead of Kia. 

While this is still a relatively strong showing, Ingolstadt's premium carmaker is also doing its own part to give its local lineup a little refresh (and thus, added relevance). Lower-powered variants of the Q3 and Q5 have landed, promising to be wallet-friendlier both immediately and over the longer term, in terms of fuel consumption and road tax. 

Audi Singapore also recently launched the Q8 e-tron and Q8 Sportback e-tron. We'll have to watch and see if these efforts are ultimately potent enough to vault it back into the Top 10 over the next half year.

The Audi Q8 e-tron and Q8 Sportback e-tron, launched just in July 2023, are effectively thoroughly refreshed versions of the SUV twins we previously knew as the e-tron and e-tron Sportback SUVs

Just below is another name that's emerged as a perhaps unexpected, but extremely stable anchor in the Top 15 in recent memory. Registering 294 units from January to June, Porsche finds itself at Number 12 for the mid-year table. 

Nothing brand new has been released by the brand over the past six months, but the Porsche name is most certainly keeping itself in the spotlight (present continuous, yes) with its myriad of brand experiences, and 75th anniversary celebrations. 

Further down are a few more interesting phenomena to note. Volvo is currently outpacing Volkswagen, while Citroen continues to be the frontrunner of the Stellantis Group's trio of mass-market marques (and even with Opel's 'special advantage' — more on that soon). As to how or why, Citroen is perhaps finding good footing with the facelifted, Cat A-friendly C5 Aircross; Volvo, on the other hand, has likely benefited from its electrified lineup. 

Citroen is continuing to pull better numbers than its Stellantis Group stablemates, Peugeot and Opel, while Volvo is also performing solidly so far, placing at Number 12

But two names that one traditionally doesn't expect to find in the Top 25 are here. At Number 23, Rolls-Royce has edged out MINI for the first half of the year with its 81 registrations, while Ferrari, at Number 25 with 69 registrations, places above brands including Mitsubishi, Ssangyong and the soon-to-be-discontinued Seat. 

It's not just Rolls-Royce and Ferrari that appear to have tailwinds; Aston Martin (13 units), Bentley (51 units) and McLaren (10 units) are turning in numbers from the first half of this year that put them on track to match their overall performance for 2022.

The strong performances from ultra-luxury and supercar-makers are probably indicative of the impact created from revisions (again) to Singapore's Additional Registration Fee (ARF) structure. Announced in February's Budget 2023, the new progressive taxes likely saw buyers flocking to showrooms and putting their money down ahead of the significant price hikes. 

Electric only 

The other significant pillar that we cannot give short shrift to now — and that will also keep growing in the years to come — is the population of electric cars on our roads.

As somewhat surprising news, Tesla had actually been outpaced by BYD as Singapore's bestselling EV marque up till May. In June, however, the warring American and Chinese brands swapped spots again, thanks to an exceptionally strong showing by Tesla: It registered 117 units in the month, against BYD's 60 units. 

Thanks to improved cost control measures, Tesla managed to drop prices across its range by up to five per cent back in April. It is unclear whether this helped contribute to its particularly robust month of June, during which it registered 117 units here 

How exactly Tesla pulled ahead with such vigour in June is unclear, although it's worth remembering that the carmaker dropped prices across the board by up to 5per cent back in April, citing progress in its cost control measures. 

Looking ahead for both brands, the arrival of the Dolphin, as mentioned, is good news for BYD — but we'd never dismiss the inexplicable longevity of the hype surrounding Tesla's brand.

Elsewhere, the efforts made by certain brands to enter the electric arena early are also showing. Consistent with their overall performance, BMW and Mercedes-Benz turned in commendable numbers for the first half of the year, although the former pull ahead by this metric, registering 298 and 222 units respectively. 

Both BMW and Mercedes-Benz have undeniably been hard at work to expand their electric portfolios, with each brand now offering EVs that span a range of body styles and segments

BMW's numbers are particularly impressive: Its all-electric models, now including the i4, iX3, i7 and iX, made up 18per cent of total registrations, against a figure of just 10per cent for Merc, which has — deep breath — the EQA, EQB, EQC, EQE, EQS and EQV.

Paying attention to the ratio of all-electric to combustion-powered vehicles in a brand's portfolio will be even more important moving forward. As model lineups increasingly shift towards EVs, it will be interesting to see if drivers in Singapore are willing to keep pace — or whether we will insist on holding on to the combustion engine. 

Volvo, with cars like the XC40 Recharge and electric-only C40 (pictured), is also another player that is seeing the proportion of its all-electric models grow significantly in comparison to its combustion-powered models. The Swedish firm has pledged to only release electric models from 2030

Coming back to the present, however, we think it was Volvo's all-electric performance that was even more noteworthy. (MG's 51 per cent is outstanding, but unlike Volvo, has a lineup that more heavily skews towards EVs.)

The 76 all-electric Volvos registered made up nearly 40 per cent of its total registrations — and it's safe to say too, that these were purely for private use. Volvo currently has the XC40 Recharge and C40 in Singapore.

On that note…

Three other interesting observations

1) Opel's unexpected electric strength?

Undeniably, throwing its hat into the ring early with models such as the Mokka-e, a stylish compact crossover, as well as the Zafira e-Life, a seven-seater MPV, puts Opel in a good position to increase its all-electric presence in Singapore.

Nonetheless, we suspect that's not where the bulk of its 98 all-electric registrations have gone to. Instead, Opel's partnership with BlueSG, announced in September 2022, is likely contributing to the sum — even as we see more of the five-door Corsa-e on our roads. 

When the deal is complete, BlueSG will have at least 500 units of the electric supermini in its fleet. The Corsa-e is currently not available to private buyers.

2) It's Merc's plug-in hybrid world, and we're all just living in it 

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are still not the drivetrain-of-choice among Singaporeans. If you were going to buy one — or so the general argument goes — why not just go all-electric already?

With its longstanding, larger-than-life allure, however, Merc has seemingly managed to win customers over based on its brand appeal: It registered 65 PHEV units from January to June. Having said that, we'd also argue that the cars themselves are pretty compelling. The E300e, for instance, is still the entry-point to the E-Class range as of now. 

Merc is clearly the frontrunner (and largest proponent) of PHEVs locally at the moment, with the E300e as the entry point to the E-Class sedan range, and the latest GLC SUV offered as a plug-in hybrid 

Meanwhile, Merc is clearly giving due attention to plug-in hybrids with a concerted push for the GLC300e (which we enjoyed on our drive). The all-new SUV boasts the longest range on a PHEV Merc yet, with a full charge of its battery returning an official 138km. 

Volvo is in second place — but far behind — with 19 PHEV units registered through the first half of the year — likely thanks to the 'Recharge' variants of its XC60 and XC90 SUVs. 

3) The slow fade of brands without cars to sell - at least not right now 

The fact that sales are slumping across the board should come as no surprise, considering the ridiculous heights to which COE premiums have risen. Still, there's good reason why brands like Ssangyong, Renault, Mitsubishi and Seat appear to be falling further by the wayside than the average name.

As a result of stagnating lineups, brands like Ssangyong, Renault and Mitsubishi appear to be falling further by the wayside than the average name. Meanwhile, retail of new cars from Seat is set to cease by end-2023

These brands have arguably all enjoyed halcyon days of their own — but are currently also tied together by the same thread in that they do not have anything new on the market. Seat, as we know, is a special case: Retail of the new cars from the brand is set to cease by year-end, with only official aftersales support remaining on the island moving forward. 

As to whether the fortunes of these names can be turned around in the future, we'd say Renault has the best shot. The French brand is set to go all-electric on our shores, and based on international markets, could draw new customers in again when (or if) the Megane E-Tech arrives. 

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This article was first published in sgCarMart.