Tesla, the United States electric vehicle (EV) maker has been surpassed by the Chinese EV maker, BYD in Singapore. With this, BYD was crowned as the EV brand with the highest volume sold in the first five months of 2023, The Straits Times reported.
According to data recorded by the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA), BYD registered a total of 303 EVs from the month of January to May 2023, with 20% of its sales contributed by private-hire operators. This is 20 units or 7% more than Tesla’s sales figures in the same period, with a total of 283 units sold. BMW came third place with 249 units registered during the same period as well.
Tesla was the EV market leader in Singapore last year, but its market share dropped from 53.1% in 2021 to 24.1% in 2022. BYD, on the other hand, had its greatest growth in 2022 and has ended its year with only 89 fewer units sold compared to Tesla.
LTA’s report has also recorded that half of the 10 bestsellers in the island nation have experienced a dip in market share. This includes carmakers such as Polestar, Porsche, and MG, which have sold 51, 43, and 42 units respectively.
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The carmaker that suffered the biggest dip in sales was Tesla, which experienced its biggest drop of 4.7% in Singapore. Reasons for the drop were said to be potentially caused by the waning of the brand’s novelty, as well as the rise of constant newer and stronger competition from other EV brands.
This situation of Tesla wasn’t unique to just Singapore however, as the United States EV carmaker’s share of EV sales has also taken a fall down to 59.6% during the first quarter in California, which is one of its sales strongholds. This is also despite Tesla having already cut prices for its vehicles six times throughout the year.
There were two newcomers that made it to the top 10 list for the January to May period in Singapore – Opel and Volvo. Opel’s positive sales results were mainly contributed by its models having replaced the Bluecar in the electric car-sharing company BlueSG, as the supply for Bluecar from Bolloré was ceased. Volvo, which was the 10th best-selling EV brand in 2022 of the island nation has now superseded Audi, taking the sixth position in the January to May period.
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