BYD has overtaken Tesla as the top-selling electric vehicle brand in Singapore, with the Chinese automaker surging ahead of the American brand in units sold for the first five months of 2023, the Straits Times reports.

According to data from the country’s land transport authority (LTA), BYD registered 303 EVs in the republic from January to May, putting it ahead of Tesla, which managed 283 units during the same period. In third place was BMW with 249 units. About 20% of BYD sales were to private-hire operators.

While the race to determine the No 1 spot for the year still remains open, with quite a way to go, BYD will fancy its chances on finishing top when the time comes. Although Tesla remained the market leader in Singapore last year, its lead had dropped from 53.1% of all EVs registered in 2021 to 24.1% in 2022. The biggest gainer in terms of registration figures was BYD, which finished just 89 units behind Tesla in 2022.

The LTA indicated that 1,462 electric cars were registered in the first five months of 2023, accounting for 13.4% of total vehicle registrations, up slightly from the 11.7% recorded in the same period last year. However, the total number of EVs in Singapore remains low, with just 7,961 electric cars on the road as of end-May, accounting for just 1.2% of the total car population.

The report added that half of the top 10 bestsellers, which includes the likes of Mercedes-Benz (171 units), Hyundai (56), Polestar (51), Porsche (43) and MG (42), suffered a dip in market share. Newcomers to the top 10 list for the January-May period were Opel and Volvo, the former’s volume (98 units) coming from its EVs replacing the Bluecar in electric car-sharing company BlueSG‘s fleet, while Volvo (57) replaced Audi in the list.