Sales of battery-electric commercial vehicles hit 30.8% in Singapore in Q1 across the vehicle categories, according to Singapore’s Land Transport Authority. Singapore’s Land Transport Authority lists four categories of commercial vehicles. These are:
- GPV: Goods & passenger vehicles
- LGV: Light Goods Vehicles (mlw ≤ 3.5 metric tons) (mostly vans)
- HGV: Heavy Goods Vehicles (3.5 < mlw ≤ 16.0 metric tons)
- VHGV: Very heavy goods vehicles (mlw > 16.0 metric tons)
In the first three months of this year, 3,377 commercial vehicles were sold in Singapore. 1,041 of these vehicles (30.8%) were fully electric! The LGV (vans mostly) segment saw the highest number of battery-electric vehicles sold in that period, with 938 electric vans sold from January to March. A total of 1,780 vans were sold in Singapore, and this means that an awesome 52% of vans sold in Singapore were fully electric! This is the first time that electric vans have surpassed the 50% mark. Reports from Singapore say that this surge in Q1 could be due to a rush to register electric vans before a reduction in incentives for commercial vehicles. The rebate amount in Singapore was halved from $30,000 after March 31.
Battery-Electric Commercial Vehicles Sold In Q1 in Singapore. Data from LTA
The top selling electric van was the BYD T3, which registered 234 units in Q1. Shineray was in second place with 197 units. Toyota was in 3rd place with 121 units, Citroen in fourth place with 76 units, and Opel and DFSK were in joint fifth place with 56 units each.
Battery-Electric Vans Sold In Q1 in Singapore. Data from LTA
Electric buses also had an impressive quarter, with 52 electric buses sold in that period out of a total of 270 buses. That means an awesome 19.3% of all buses sold in Q1 were fully electric. Higer topped the electric bus charts with 27 units in Q1, followed by Foton with 14. Chinese firms dominated electric bus sales in Q1 just as they did in the electric van segment. In the heavy goods segment, 44 out of 971 heavy goods vehicles registered in Q1 in Singapore were fully electric. That means just under 5% were electric last quarter.
I hope this impressive showing in the electric van sector continues even after the reduction in incentives. There may be an initial drop in sales, but hopefully sales will pick up again quickly. It’s great to see commercial electric vehicles doing well in several markets around the world. In the United Kingdom, the SMMT says ownership of electric commercial vehicles has also risen, with vans up some 67.3% and buses and coaches increasing by 34.9%, while the number of zero emission trucks has almost tripled since last year. For electric vans, this strong growth has continued into 2023 in the UK with deliveries of battery-electric vans up by 32.7% compared to March 2022. This was driven by an increasing choice of models, which makes switching to zero emission vehicles more compelling. 2,534 BEV vans were sold in March. The electric van market share for the month was 5.3% of the UK’s LCV market, which is an important number. A 5% market share is seen as a key milestone and tipping point for EV adoption.
We will be on the lookout for developments in other markets around the world.
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