Vehicle Emissions & Electric Vehicles
8 March 2017
Incentivising the Sale of Hybrid Cars
27 February 2020
Number of Cars Registered under Vehicle Emission Schemes from January 2018 & Data on Number of Registered Electric Cars, Hybrid Car and Petrol Car in Past Three Years
28 February 2020
Data on Median and Mean Road Taxes Paid by Owners of Electric, Hybrid and Petrol Cars in Past Three Years
4 March 2020
Budget Cut at Committee of Supply 2020
Louis delivered his budget cut on Incentivising the Sale of Hybrid Cars at Committee of Supply 2017.
Louis: Thank you, Madam. One way you we can fight climate change is by promoting the use of hybrid cars or cars with lower emission. This can also contribute to cleaner air. Can the Ministry look into providing more incentives for buying vehicles with cleaner emissions, as well as introducing tighter emission standards for new vehicles.
Ultimately, we need to make sure that hybrid cars cost cheaper, at least slightly than high emission cars so that more people will buy them.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M (MEWR): Apart from this, we will continue with our three-pronged approach in managing vehicular emissions. Firstly, we encourage the purchase of cleaner vehicles, such as low emission hybrid cars, which Mr Louis Ng spoke about. The Carbon Emissions-based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS) was first designed to nudge consumers towards vehicles with lower carbon emissions. This remains important as vehicles contribute the second largest share of Singapore's greenhouse gas emissions after-industries.
However, we now need to revise CEVS to include tailpipe emissions of harmful air pollutants on top of carbon dioxide. The revised CEVS will be renamed as the Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES). To incentivise the purchase of car and taxi models which are more environmentally friendly overall, the VES rebate or surcharge will be determined by the worst performing pollutant. This incentive framework has worked well in the past, and we will continue to review its effectiveness.
Secondly, we inspect vehicles already on the road to minimise harmful emissions from them. The in-use emission standard for diesel vehicles was already tightened in January 2014. We will now introduce new in-use emission standards for petrol vehicles and motorcycles, similar to those already in place in Europe and Japan. These standards are designed to be easily met by properly maintained vehicles. The new standards will take effect on 1 April 2018, and will help minimise excessive emissions due to vehicle defects or poor maintenance.
Thirdly, we encourage the removal of older and more polluting vehicles. To incentivise this, we will revise the Early Turnover Scheme (ETS). The ETS has been successful with over 27,000 older diesel vehicles being replaced by newer ones, resulting in significant reductions in NOx and PM. We will extend the scheme for Euro II and III diesel commercial vehicles that turn over to Euro 6 and equivalent models, for two years from August 2017.
Given industry feedback, as well as the findings that Light Goods Vehicles (LGVs) remain a major contributor of diesel pollution due to their large population, the scheme will also be enhanced by increasing the COE bonus for LGVs from 13% to 35%. We hope that through this, more diesel commercial vehicles and buses will switch to Euro 6 models or cleaner electric hybrids or petrol alternatives.
Number of Cars Registered under Vehicle Emission Schemes from January 2018
Louis asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) for each month from 1 January 2018, how many cars have been registered under the Vehicle Emission Schemes in the A1, A2, B, C1 and C2 bands respectively; and (b) whether the Ministry will start collecting such data if it does not currently do so.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M (MEWR): The Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES) has been implemented for all new cars, taxis and newly imported cars since January 2018. It assesses vehicles on five key pollutants – carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM). The VES band for the vehicles is determined by the worst-performing pollutant of the five being assessed. The quarterly registration trends under the respective VES bands show promising results in encouraging the uptake of cleaner cars.
Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)
Data on Number of Registered Electric Cars, Hybrid Car and Petrol Car in Past Three Years
Louis asked the Minister for Transport for each year in the past three years (a) what are the numbers of registered (i) electric cars (ii) hybrid cars and (ii) petrol cars; (b) for each of the three categories of registered cars, how many are (i) between 600 cc to 1,000 cc (ii) 1,000 cc to 1,600 cc and (iii) 1,600 cc to 3,000 cc; and (c) whether the Ministry will start collecting such data if it does not currently do so.
Mr Khaw Boon Wan (MOT): The numbers of registered electric, hybrid and petrol cars are tabulated below.
Louis asked the Minister for Transport (a) for each year in the past three years, what was the median and mean road tax paid for a car owner of (i) an electric car (ii) a hybrid car and (iii) a petrol car respectively; and (b) whether the Ministry will start collecting such data if it does not currently do so.
Mr Khaw Boon Wan (MOT): The data are tabulated below.
Louis delivered the following budget cut on Greening Our Private Passenger Car Fleet at Committee of Supply 2020.
Louis: Next, it is positive news that we have committed to having a fleet of local public buses that runs on cleaner energy by 2040. It is also good news that we intend to phase out internal combustion engines (ICE) and have vehicles run on cleaner energy by 2040.
But this will take time as we need to expand the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. In the meantime, we can steer Singapore towards an environmentally-friendly car society by improving the Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES). Currently, a hybrid car costs more – a lot more. Will the Ministry consider offering higher rebates under the current VES and increasing surcharges for vehicles with higher emissions?
I understand that we are not in the business of making cars cheaper, but we are in the business of protecting our environment. We can do this by urging people and steering them towards purchasing hybrid cars in the next 10 years, again before the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is ready.
It is also good news that we will be extending the VES to light commercial vehicles. Can MEWR provide more details about this?
Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M (MEWR): Mr Louis Ng asked about the Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES). The VES implemented in 2018 has seen positive results and we have since extended the VES until end 2020. This will complement the enhanced incentives and infrastructure to promote the use of electric vehicles announced at the Budget. We aim to refine VES further, taking into account its impact on motorists' purchasing decisions and advancements in technology.
The transport of goods and services is a major economic activity in Singapore. Commercial vehicles, especially Light Goods Vehicles or LGVs, are key emission sources and pollute our air due to their high mileage and reliance on diesel. To support the shift to cleaner commercial vehicles, we will introduce a new Commercial Vehicle Emissions Scheme (CVES) for new LGVs, which form the largest proportion of commercial vehicles.
Under the new CVES, the cleanest LGVs will receive a $30,000 incentive, while the most polluting LGVs will incur a $10,000 surcharge. In terms of Total Cost of Ownership, fleet owners will enjoy overall savings when they purchase EVs as opposed to petrol vehicles and even greater savings as compared to diesel vehicles.
To complement the CVES, we will enhance the Early Turnover Scheme (ETS) from 1 April 2021 until 31 March 2023, including expanding the scheme to cover Euro 4 diesel commercial vehicles. The existing ETS will be extended until 31 March 2021.