How to make the most of your expensive COE in 2023

WHETHER they continue to touch new highs as they did last year, prices for certificates of entitlement (COE) look set to stay lofty in 2023, especially if supplies remain tight.

The good news? Making the most of a scarce and pricey COE this year should be easy, thanks to a crop of exciting new cars.

If 2022 was the year electric cars finally took off in Singapore, the coming year is shaping up to be one in which legacy brands pause to rediscover their combustion roots, giving rise to treats such as a new Mercedes SL, exhilarating editions of the iconic Porsche 911, a Ferrari for family men, and more.

Here are the best cars headed your way in 2023.

Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron 

Fans of Audi’s ability to mix technical prowess with style are in for a treat in the second half of 2023. With 630 horsepower each, the incoming RS7 and RS6 Avant (a fiery four-door coupe and wild wagon respectively) leap to 100 km/h in just 3.4 seconds, thanks to a four-litre, twin-turbo V8 engine of some pedigree. It powers cars from Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche, Audi’s corporate siblings.

With its last combustion engine just 10 years away, Audi is renaming the e-tron, once its sole electric vehicle (EV) offering, the Q8 e-tron. The hefty sport utility vehicle (SUV) is also getting sharper looks, more range and new motor designs that boost performance.

The Q8 e-tron 50 version can cover a claimed 491 km on a single charge, while a larger battery gets the Q8 e-tron 55 to 582 km.

But for something on the slinky side, there’s the Q8 Sportback e-tron. Aside from pleasing the eye, its more slippery shape helps increase range to as much as 600 km.

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BMW XM

Boxy, brash and provocative, the XM is only the second standalone car from BMW’s high-octane, 50-year-old M division. Due here before June, it makes up for lost time by mashing electrification with an SUV body, two things the zeitgeist demands. 

Sarah Lessmann, its product manager, told The Business Times that being an M car means the XM comes with the brand’s “promise” that it will handle well, despite weighing 2.7 tonnes.

All XMs will be plug-in hybrids, and the basic 4.4-litre V8/electric motor set-up is good for 653 horsepower. Lessmann promised more. “We will hit the market with an even stronger variant: 750 horsepower and an unbelievable 1,000 Newton-metres of torque. The so-called XM Label Red will then be the strongest SUV on the road,” she said. “Sorry, Ferrari!”

Ferrari Purosangue

Don’t call the Purosangue an SUV. Insiders are adamant it’s a family Ferrari, with the kind of howling V12 engine that you can only get from the brand.

It certainly goes like a Ferrari, with 725 horsepower giving it the legs to hit 100 km/h in only 3.3 seconds, while a new kind of suspension adjusts its attitude on the fly to make it just as ready for rough roads as the track.

But the show-stopper feature could be the rear-hinged doors, which swing open electrically for dramatic effect. They give access to the two adult-sized rear seats.

Expect a third-quarter debut here for the Purosangue with an estimated price tag of S$1.8 million without COE. 

Mercedes-AMG SL

10 launches will make 2023 a busy year for Mercedes, but it’s set to start the year in style by releasing the new SL. The glamorous nameplate is usually attached to a two-seat roadster, but the SL has become a 2+2.

That’s not the only change. Now engineered by the petrolheads at Mercedes-AMG, the SL newly prioritises performance over glamour, as the switch to a folding fabric roof signals. With 565 horsepower, the speedy SL 65 version rockets to 100 km/h in a Porsche-challenging 3.6 seconds, but perhaps the more important measurement is 15 seconds: the time it takes for the new SL to drop its top.

Mercedes-EQ EQS SUV

When it arrives in the second half of the year, the EQS SUV should lay to rest all doubt that Mercedes is going big with electric cars.

Based on the same basic architecture as the EQS, the big SUV also offers single and dual motor set-ups to suit different appetites for speed. It has enough battery capacity to cover 600 km with ease, and also offers the cabin-spanning Hyperscreen that covers the dashboard with slick, high-resolution displays.

But the EQS SUV offers a twist in the form of an optional third row of seats, which should allow seven people in total to travel not just in electric silence, but opulence.

After the EQS SUV comes a smaller car, the EQE SUV. It offers less range and up to five seats, but at a lower price (though you should set aside around S$430,000 for one) and in an easier to handle package. The all-electric Mercedes-EQ label’s growing portfolio is a reminder of its aim to have a battery-powered car in every segment within the next two years.

Porsche 911 GT3 RS

Newly flush with cash from a successful listing and raking more in from its wildly popular Taycan range of electric cars, Porsche seems to be pausing to remind itself of its sports-car roots this year, with four variants of its iconic 911 due here, along with new editions of the more affordable 718 Boxster and Cayman models.

While the 911 is legendary in its own right, driving enthusiasts (or, let’s face it, wannabe racing drivers) tend to hold up the GT3 RS as the purest iteration. Stripped of all unnecessary weight, powered by a howling engine that builds power from revs instead of a turbocharger and festooned with aerodynamic aids, it looks, sounds and, most likely, feels like a racing car that escaped the track.

For the record, the GT3 RS screams to 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds. Few cars are faster, and fewer still are as visceral. It’s yours for S$974,488 without COE or options. Or a helmet. 

Porsche 911 Dakar

Off-roading at 170 km/h? The 911 Dakar makes it possible, thanks to a four wheel-drive, two new driving modes and active suspension that hikes it as much as 8 cm higher over the ground than a normal 911.

An offbeat take on how versatile the 911 is, the S$967,788 (without COE) machine also commemorates Porsche’s 1984 Paris-Dakar Rally win with a heavily modified 911.

Porsche will build just 2,500 examples, so the Dakar has a shot at becoming a collector’s item. That makes the striking S$118,241 Rallye Design Package practically mandatory. It mimics the winning car’s classic racing livery, minus the now-verboten tobacco branding.

Rolls-Royce Spectre

As EVs become ever more mainstream, the Rolls-Royce Spectre will test how far they can travel the other way into the exclusive realm of super luxury.

The Spectre will offer the sort of silence that co-founder Charles Stewart Rolls could only have dreamed of more than a century ago, while packing enough punch to hit 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds, along with over 500 km of range.

Determined to get its first EV right, Rolls put the Spectre through at least 2.5 million km of testing, but it is presence, an exquisite cabin and an endless options list that define a Rolls-Royce.

Due here at the tail end of the year, each piece will cost an estimated S$2.2 million without options. Nothing like a price tag that high to make COE prices pale into insignificance.