[Akshitsi]

Background

The Singapore Motorshow 2020 was the sixth edition of the an annual car event. It is the country’s largest and most prestigious annual motoring event will be host to a variety of exhibitions and activities - from car launches showcasing the next wave in automative industry.

Held from 9 to 12 January 2020, visitors of the Singapore Motorshow could experience over 30 automotive brands with exciting new car launches first hand. Some of the brands such as Porsche, Maserati, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus, among others were present during the show. All this topped with the stunt car driver Russ Swift's entertaining performance.

I will let the pictures do the talking now!

Audi






The RS5! Look at those massive wheels.




A5 Cabriolet. One of the best looking Audi cars IMO.






Audi E-Tron. This was the highlight of the Audi lineup.


Fit and finish levels were top notch. Commendable job by Audi.


Audi A5 Sportback


New Q3


Q2. Looks very small in person. Size comparable to the likes of Creta.


Q8. Flagship SUV in Audi lineup.


Interiors were classy. Best in the segment for sure!




Audi A1 with its very boxy design. Didn't impress at all. If you thought A3 was small, you need to look at this.


Driver's view of the A8L.

BMW


The M8. This colour looks incredible on the car.


The car looks better in photos than in person.


Cockpit view.


The new 7 series with the massive grill.


New X1


2-Series Sedan.




BMW 3-series G20.


New 1-series. I prefer the looks of the new A-Class over this.

[Akshitsi]

Honda




The ongoing generation Civic. This comes with the 1.5L Turbo. The engine that we could appreciate more than the slow and old 1.8L N/A.


CR-V.




Honda Odessy. Honda's MPV.


The new Accord. Cars in Singapore are so expensive, that this accord costs about S$170K (Around INR 85L)


What has happened to the Honda interiors? They're so Vanilla now. The previous Accord and Civic which were sold in India had drool-worthy interiors.

Hyundai


Kona


Venue. It launched in Singapore recently.


Ioniq. Can see quite a lot on the Singapore roads these days.

Infiniti

Infiniti to Nissan is what Lexus is to Toyota.


QX50


Q60


Q50

JEEP


Grand Cherokee


Wrangler


Renegade. Wish Jeep launched it in India sooner.

JLR






Prototype Defender. Looked pretty damn good.


Jag XE


E-Pace


Discovery Sport


New Evoque

Kia


Stinger GT. The car which we deserve.


Interiors look top notch as well.


Stonic


Serato GT


Cerato

[Akshitsi]

Lexus


UX250h




LC Special Edition. Looks amazing in this colour.


The rear looks meaty.


NX300

Lotus




Exige 350 Sport

Maserati


Lineup looking awesome




GranCabrio




Quattroporte


Levante SUV

Mercedes-Benz



New C-Class







CLA Shooting Brake


A-Class


And the A-Class Sedan


CLA


C63S

Nissan


Serena Electric





Sylphy


Note


Qashqai


X-Trail

[Akshitsi]

Porsche




911 Carrers S


Love the interior quality here


Cayenne


Cayenne E-Hybrid









718 Cayman


718 Boxter

Renault


Scenic


Grand Scenic


Megane RS


Loved the bucket seats on this car. They hug you from everywhere that you can imagine.




Driver's cockpit of the Megane RS. It really is a hot hatch.


Kadjar or as we call it, Captur

Skoda


Superb


Octavia RS 245


Kodiaq






Scala. It was airlifted and bought in especially for the Motorshow. It hasn't released in Singapore yet.


Interiors are typically Skoda








The Yeti replacement Karoq. Looks really good.


Liked the interior quality too.

[Akshitsi]

Subaru


VIZVI Concept


XV GT Edition

Suzuki


Vitara


Swift


Jimny. Looks very funky.

Toyota




New Altis. Didn't impress that much.


Rav-4






Mighty Supra. This car is essentially a BMW Z4 wearing Toyota clothes.


Driver's view


"Toyota" Harrier

Volkswagen








New Polo


Cockpit View


Long-lost Beetle




T-Cross, which is soon to be released in India.


Cockpit view of the new Touareg. Biggest infotainment screen i've ever seen in a car.




Golf GTI. The real hot hatch.


Steering wheel is very meaty.

Volvo


The new S60


Much more spacious and luxurious than its older generation.


XC60

[vb-saan]

Thread moved out of Assembly Line. Great report, thank you for sharing!

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Excellent report. Thanks for sharing.

For a market that has such high levels of taxation and car prices - what makes the participation so good? Looks like all the major companies were present with full force.

In comparison - many major players are expected to skip the India Auto Expo 2020.

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

For a market that has such high levels of taxation and car prices - what makes the participation so good? Looks like all the major companies were present with full force.

In comparison - many major players are expected to skip the India Auto Expo 2020.

I can think of a few reasons:

• It’s an easy market with high level of visibility as a large Asia-Pacific business hub.
• The COEs (Certificate of Entitlement) are issued normally for 10 years, which means majority won’t keep the car for more than 10 years.
• Since all cars come via CBU route, the margins probably are good as well.

Honda and Toyota are traditionally very strong here, and models like HRV/Vezel and C-HR are very popular with the ride-sharing platforms. And the other Japanese players like Suzuki and Subaru are more into the niche portfolio, with the likes Swift Sport, WRX etc. Mazda is another popular Japanese brand here. Hyundai and KIA have official tie-up with the major taxi players here.

Almost all the Europeans have good presence here, the most popular being BMW and Mercedes. VW is doing very well with the Golf, Touran etc., and I see more Volvos on the road nowadays. Porsche is another popular one, especially the Macan and Panamera. Even niche brands like Alfa Romeo and Seat have good presence here. Skoda exited a few years back but returned in 2018/19. The only brand I have seen not making a comeback is Fiat, probably that’s a global phenomenon.

American brands are not so popular now, I believe for Ford it’s only the Mustang on sale here now through official channels. Jeep is selling its full range, reasonably popular ones are the Compass and the Renegade.

[DrCar]

When I visited Singapore, I hardly noticed Suzuki or Nissan cars over there. Hyundai and Toyota had good presence.

The fit and finish of all the cars were excellent compared to similar cars sold over here. I saw first generation Swift sports and also the first generation Corolla. Both looked impeccable. Only reason I could think of is better infrastructure, good road discipline and better overall build quality of the cars.

On the contrary, I hardly saw any Hyundai cars in Thailand. Can anyone explain the reason why? It was dominated by Nissan and Mitsubishi (Yes, both has a presence there mainly in pickup forms). Toyota and Honda too dominated the scene.

[uditsharma01]

India is the 5th largest country in the world in terms of automobile sales and yet so neglected by some very big players. The likes of Subaru, Mazda Chevy etc don't even consider our market worth investing. The manufacturers like FCA, Nissan, Toyota, Renault and even Honda don't put their complete portfolio on sale in India. VW Group and Skoda have also been biased with their offerings. The products on sale here are somewhat below par as compared to their foreign counterparts.

But in the end, users and their choices are blamed when the companies announce their exit from the market.

Apologies for the rant and if it has gone a bit off-topic.

[nikhilarni]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

For a market that has such high levels of taxation and car prices - what makes the participation so good?

I was actually wondering the same thing. For a country that actually discourages owning a Car and being ridiculously expensive to own and drive a car, making it pretty much out of reach and impractical for the general population, what makes it so viable for companies to showcase their full range.

I can understand that there are exceptions with luxury brands like the Maseratis, Benz E and S class, BMW X5s and 7s and higher, for people who can afford them, really don't visit expos to see the cars. They pretty much know what they want and just buy it.

I was in Singapore for a short deputation, and even renting a car to drive was super expensive.

[The Riddler]

Excellent report, Akshitsi. Thanks for sharing.

Loved the Audi RS5 Sportback. That shade of green looks gorgeous.

INR 85L for an Accord!! Learnt something new today.

[kiku007]

Didn't you cover the internet sensation of last week? Subaru Forester Ultimate Customized Kit Special edition.

https://jalopnik.com/subaru-of-ameri...t-t-1840971831

https://jalopnik.com/the-subaru-****...gon-1840906483

[vibbs]

Great report. Thanks for sharing. I missed the expo. But there is always a next time.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Excellent report. Thanks for sharing.

For a market that has such high levels of taxation and car prices - what makes the participation so good? Looks like all the major companies were present with full force.

In comparison - many major players are expected to skip the India Auto Expo 2020.

Originally Posted by uditsharma01

India is the 5th largest country in the world in terms of automobile sales and yet so neglected by some very big players. The likes of Subaru, Mazda Chevy etc don't even consider our market worth investing. The manufacturers like FCA, Nissan, Toyota, Renault and even Honda don't put their complete portfolio on sale in India. VW Group and Skoda have also been biased with their offerings. The products on sale here are somewhat below par as compared to their foreign counterparts.

.

I have been in Singapore for a little over 7 months now and this is my understanding. It is more about how the Market is set up. Beyond the automobile sector actually.

Almost everything in Singapore is imported. Sample this, when I go Grocery shopping, my milk comes from Australia, Salmon from Norway, Chicken from Malaysia, Avocados from South America etc.
Almost everything is similarly priced.

Same extends to automobiles. There is no local manufacturing to skew the pricing badly. Plus COE, the certificate of entitlement valid for 10 years is a big component in car prices. This is based on class of car and is independent of where the car is imported from. This leads to the percentage variation of country of origin in the car cost to be comparatively less.

Secondly, even though it is an expensive market to own a car, we must not forget that it is a fairly developed country and population does have the purchasing power to own it. For eg., The Average salary as disclosed by Ministry of manpower for last year was around 4000 SGD.
For expatriates (even from India) it is common to see salaries double this amount.
Putting things in perspective, a new Kia Forte is available for around 85K SGD. Nissan Qashqai is around 110K SGD.

Compare this with the salaries that I mentioned above, you'll see it is not so different from owning a car in India.
It is still much more expensive than owning a car in cheaper markets like Dubai or the US mind you.

The public transportation however is so good that unless you 'want' a car, you don't need to buy one. This means higher preference for better cars among those who buy one compared to India.

Finally coming to the main reason why we don't see all such range displayed in India. The two driving factors behind participation in an expo would be local business opportunity and global/Regional visibility.

As Vbsan mentioned already, Singapore has a more favourable visibility specially in the Asia - Pacific region.

Then, despite India being a much bigger market, only way the companies can sell a car in decent numbers is, if you set up local assembly line. The market is more price sensitive and taxation for CBUs and CKDs will knock any imported cars out of the ground even before the match begins.
Therefore there are no incentives to display their global range for most manufacturers.

Singapore on the other hand is more favorable to the companies on both these aspects. Higher regional visibility and they can actually sell these models they display with good enough profit and not having to worry about cheap locally manufactured models making their life difficult.