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Almost 10 per cent of cars sold in Singapore over the past six months have been electric vehicles (EVs).

According to the Land Transport Authority's (LTA) latest figures, 16,567 new cars were registered in the first half of 2022.

Out of these, 1,488 of them were EVs, reported The Straits Times.

More than 20 times increase from 2020

Singapore has been accelerating its efforts to decarbonise land transport.

Minister for Transport S Iswaran said at Temasek Ecosperity Week in June that new electric car registrations accounted for 8.4 per cent of all new car registrations in the first five months of 2022.

He added that this is more than twice the rate in 2021, and over 20 times that in 2020.

Nonetheless, he expects this momentum to gather pace.

Switching from Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to electric halves the carbon footprint of the vehicle, which is further minimised with the growing proportion of renewables in Singapore's energy mix, said Iswaran.

To encourage EV adoption, the government aims to have 2,000 public housing car parks equipped with EV chargers by 2025, and a network of 60,000 chargers by 2030.

This is part of Singapore's goal to have all vehicles run on cleaner energy by 2040.

Tesla was top EV choice

In the first half of 2022, 315 Teslas were registered in Singapore.

In a ST infographic, it was shown that Tesla was the most popular EV brand, followed by Chinese manufacturer BYD and BMW.

Model 3, Tesla's main seller, is priced around S$113,245, excluding the Certificate of Entitlement (COE).

The only other model currently available for order in Singapore, Tesla Y, recently debuted in July.

It is Tesla's first mass-market SUV and prices start from S$142,471 and S$190,195 -- including all EV incentives but exclusive of COE -- for the Model Y (rear-wheel drive) and Model Y Performance, respectively.

Top images by S Iswaran/Facebook and Tesla/Facebook.