Sales of super high-end cars surge nearly 40%

Super high-end cars accelerated faster than mass-market models, with sales surging by nearly 40 per cent last year.

McLaren, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Ferrari and Aston Martin - brands with the bulk of models above $500,000 - had combined sales of 360 cars, or 38.5 per cent more than in 2020. Together, they accounted for 0.8 per cent of total new cars registered, up from 0.6 per cent in 2020.

The best-selling brand in this rarefied cohort was Bentley, with 103 units registered last year, according to the Land Transport Authority (LTA). Rolls-Royce, which has the most expensive line-up of cars among mainstream brands, followed closely behind with 90 units.

Ferrari registered 65 units, while arch-rival Lamborghini sold 47. This was followed by McLaren with 28 and Aston Martin with 27. All the figures include parallel imports.

The six top-tier brands saw improvement in sales from 2020, except for Aston Martin, which sold one fewer car last year despite the launch of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) model. Usually, the introduction of an SUV will turbocharge sales for such brands.

Meanwhile, Porsche, whose cars are mostly below $500,000 but above $300,000, saw its sales rise by 17 per cent to 680 units.

Dr Zafar Momin, a former adjunct associate professor at Nanyang Business School, said: "It may sound counter-intuitive, but the pandemic led to record-breaking sales for most high-end carmakers around the world, not just in Singapore.

"The super-rich segment of the population splurged on luxury cars in 2021 because their traditional avenues for spending were limited by the pandemic. In fact, many of them accumulated more wealth during the pandemic and had even more money to spend.

"Also, after witnessing the devastating effect and uncertainty associated with the pandemic, some of the super-rich may be adopting an attitude of 'live it up while you can', and this may also have contributed to the recent splurge in luxury cars and other luxury goods."

Meanwhile, 96,046 pre-owned cars changed hands last year, 19.3 per cent more than in 2020. Observers said this had to do with escalating certificate of entitlement prices, as well as disruption of 2020 sales by the three-month business suspension during the circuit breaker period from April to June.

According to the LTA, Singapore's vehicle population grew by 1.5 per cent to 988,755 last year. The passenger car population rose by 2.5 per cent to 579,369, and the motorcycle population crept up by 0.6 per cent to 142,229.

The rental car population shrank by 4.4 per cent to 67,990 units, continuing a decline in recent years triggered by tighter regulations for private-hire vehicles.

The taxi population, still reeling from competition from private-hire players, fell by 5 per cent to 14,887 - its smallest since the mid-1990s.