2025 ST Car of the Year mid-year scorecard

New cars launched in the 12 months up till November are in contention for the annual Straits Times Car of the Year (Coty) Award.

- Lee Nian Tjoe

May marks the midway point and it is a good time to take stock.

Between December 2024 and May 2025, the Motoring section featured 37 local car reviews, consisting of 24 new models. The rest were facelifts or variants of existing models. So, what have we seen from the class of 2024/2025 so far and what is to come?

1. EVs, ESPECIALLY CHINESE ONES, DOMINATE

There were 19 electric vehicles (EVs) among the cars reviewed, with 14 of them from Chinese carmakers. Then there are EVs like the Tesla Model Y and Mini Aceman, which may not be Chinese brands, but are built in China.

Beyond their attractive price tags and generous list of standard luxury features, the Chinese EVs also seem to be really energy-efficient. Many of the EVs tested managed to post better-than-average energy consumption figures than claimed.

Among those EVs reviewed are 11 that come from brands which have not been in Singapore for more than a year.

More brands are going to open shop in Singapore, like Leapmotor, which is a Chinese brand with backing from Stellantis, a global auto group with brands like Alfa Romeo and Peugeot.