Singapore Car Market increased significantly in 2024, with sales in August reaching 3,747 (+55.4%) and recording growth for the 9th consecutive months. YTD figures stood at 25,082 (+45.7%). All top 10 brands grew in double-digits.
Market Trend and Outlook
Singaore’s Economy is anticipated to grow by 1% to 3% in 2024, benefiting from improving US growth prospects and a stronger than anticipated expansion in China, while also gaining from robust travel, and tourism demand. The economy surpassed expectations in 2024, growing 0.1% quarter-over-quarter and 2.7% year-over-year in Q1 2024, surpassing expectations. However, despite the positive outlook, risks remain from geopolitical tensions and global monetary policy divergence.
The city-state faces various challenges including high living costs, foreign talent anxiety, income inequality, and geopolitical instability. Moreover, its status as a financial and tech hub is being challenged by global rivals, while AI and other emerging technologies are disrupting its workforce and threatening its relevance. On the upside, the island’s government expects the finance and insurance sector to be supported by higher tourist spending which will benefit the payments segment.
Although the country’s overall economy experienced only moderate growth, Singapore’s Car Market in August 2024 grew by 55.4% in year-on-year terms for the 9th consecutive month and reached 3,747 new registrations. YTD sales stood at 25,082 units (+45.7%).
Looking at cumulative data up to August 2024 brand-wise the leader remained Mercedes with 3,307 sales (+48.6%), followed by Toyota at 2,886 sales (+44.5%), Mazda -up 1 spot- at 2,460 (+42.7%) and BMW -down 1 spot- with 2,085 sales (+18.8%).
Honda ranked 5th with 1,852 registrations (+37.9%), followed by Volksvagen in 6th with 1,781 units sold (+48%), Lexus with 1,415 sales (+44.8%) and Nissan in 8th with 1,384 sales (+46.6%).
Audi secured 9th position with 1,260 sales (+45.3%) and Volvo closed the top 10 with 860 vehicle registrated (+56.4%).
Looking at specific models the Toyota Corolla secured 1st spot whilst growing 38.9% from the previous year, followed by the Mazda3 up 32.5%.
Medium-Term Market Trend
The car market in Singapore has had a few ups and downs in the last decade. From 2010 to 2014 demand for car passengers fluctuated between 41k and 20k. Following a 28.8% growth in 2014, the market broke the 40k resistance in 2015 closing the year at 66,740 cumulative sales. Demand for car passengers continued to grow until reaching the current all-time high at 91,980 in 2017. In 2018 the market rebounded, falling two years in a row and reaching 72,408 sales by the end of 2019.
The arrival of the pandemic in 2020 caused many manufacturers and distributers to shut down. This brought the car market to a halt and sales fell 38.6% down to 44,463.
Singapore’s car market slightly recovered in 2021 reaching 45,442 sales. While in 2022 sales fell 31.9% to 30,934. In 2023 sales slightly fell back, while reaching 30,221 registrations (-2.3%). A combination of factors are behind the current industry struggle: the disruption in the global supply chain caused by a lack of raw materials, in particular for the production of microchips and Governments push towards Evs, an expensive alternative for low income consumers.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands and top 10 Manufacturers Group.
