The rising popularity of Electric vehicles can be seen from an estimated 6.5 million electric vehicles (EVs) being sold worldwide in 2021, leaping 109% from 2020. Unsurprisingly, this has led to car companies turning into proponents of electric vehicles overnight.
EVs are undoubtedly one of the solutions for the environment pollution brought by transportation that has been viewed as a necessary evil for the development of our economy. Closer to home, our small island state, Singapore, emitted an estimated 52 million tons of CO2 in 2018, of which 12.4% came from transport.However, EVs remain a rarity within Singapore, with most of the electric vehicles being private-hire or taxis. So, this begs the question, what sets Singapore apart from the rest of the world?
Well, to put it simply, improvements can certainly be made to incentivise Singaporeans to adopt EVs. Singapore does little to incentivize the purchase of electric vehicles, even slapping additional surcharges on them in the past. such as the first Tesla owner in Singapore who had to pay a $15,000 carbon emissions surcharge in 2016 as it was a ”lifestyle choice”, due to the calculations which supposedly meant that the Tesla was highly polluting, despite being an environmentally sustainable vehicle. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk even called our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to protest about this issue, but to no avail.
In Singapore, additional registration fees calculated based on a “grid emissions factor” are slapped on EVs. Although the EV early adoption scheme provides buyers of fully electric cars and taxis a rebate of up to 45%(capped at $20,000), with these additional registration fees, this is sorely inadequate. While EV buyers could save an average of 11% with the rebate, these savings pale in comparison to the upfront cost of an EV in regards to a traditional internal combustion vehicle. In 2020, an EV cost a whopping 78% more than an equivalent internal combustion engine car. This relatively higher cost makes EV an unattractive option. The grand total of 1700 charging points also do not help to make EV ownership more attractive.Given so, it is not difficult to understand why the pool of privately owned EVs is just 0.2% of the total number of private vehicles on Singapore’s roads.
China and Norway. Both of these places boast a high number of EVs on their roads. As of 2021, EVs accounted for almost 13% of the Chinese vehicle market while 65% of new cars sold in Norway are EVs.
So, why is the EV story in China and Norway so different from Singapore?
China began to award special "green-coloured" license plates to new energy vehicles (NEVs) way back in 2016. In some cities, these special license plates were not subjected to the license rationing system put in place to curb vehicle growth. This resulted in the country's NEV sales rising to hit an all-time high in monthly sales in January 2022. An impressive 179,000 cars were added then.
On the other hand, the Norwegian government removed the purchase tax, value-added tax (VAT) and road traffic insurance tax on EVs. Drivers are exempt from such taxes when buying or leasing a new or pre-owned EV. This has led to the growth of the EV population in Norway with 65% of new passenger cars sold in 2021 being EVs. In addition, 22% were plug-in hybrids.
From the experience of China and Norway, it can be seen that electric cars can be integrated successfully into our society with support from the government. More can be done by the Singaporean government to incentivize car owners in Singapore to do their part for the environment. If the supporting infrastructure for EVs is in place, and getting an EV makes economic sense for car buyers, more will be willing to take the plunge and give EVs a try.
(Nissan Ariya)
(Honda E)
Glossary
(1)Range anxiety is what an electric vehicle (EV) driver feels when the battery charge is low, and the usual sources of electricity are unavailable. It sparks a fear of getting stranded somewhere, which adds time, inconvenience, and stress to a journey
Footnotes
Singapore CO2 Emissions: Transport (%), 1960-2021. Knoema. (n.d.). Retrieved April 23, 2022, from https://knoema.com/atlas/Singapore/topics/Environment/Emissions/CO2-emissions-transport-percent#:~:text=Singapore
Tan, C. (2016, March 11). Tesla boss calls PM Lee over CO2 surcharge levied on First Model S in Singapore. The Straits Times. Retrieved April 23, 2022, from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/tesla-boss-calls-pm-lee-over-co2-surcharge-levied-on-first-model-s-here
Ferris, N., (2022, January 17). Weekly Data: Why Norway leads the world for electric vehicles. Energy Monitor. Retrieved April 23, 2022, from https://www.energymonitor.ai/sectors/transport/weekly-data-why-norway-leads-the-world-for-electric-vehicles
China's Shanghai continues to offer free EV licences: Argus Media. Commodity & Energy Price Benchmarks. (2021, February 10). Retrieved April 23, 2022, from https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2185607-chinas-shanghai-continues-to-offer-free-ev-licences#:~:text=China%20in%202016%20began%20to,to%20the%20licence%20rationing%20system.
Dashveenjit Kaur | 28 December, 2021. (2022, February 14). Half of all EVS sold globally in 2021 were to China. Tech Wire Asia. Retrieved April 23, 2022, from https://techwireasia.com/2022/02/half-of-all-evs-sold-globally-in-2021-were-to-china/#:~:text=Approximately%206.5%20million%20EVs%20were,EV%20adoption%20in%20the%20world.
Written by: Teo Keh Meng (22A12)
Edited by: Goh Yu Le (21S79)
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