The article “Electric vehicles will take over Singapore. But here’s what must happen first” written by Kuttan (2020, Feb) discusses the relevance and feasibility of Singapore’s goals in the adoption of electric vehicles. Kuttan begins by highlighting the many benefits that electric vehicles bring to Singapore, including relieving traffic congestion and reducing the country’s overall carbon footprint. He goes on to highlight that Singapore aims to retire internal combustion engines by 2040 and have plans to install 28,000 charging points in collaboration with major energy companies. However, using Norway, a leading country in the adoption of electric vehicles, as a contrasting example, he underlines his concerns on the feasibility of Singapore’s goals. Kuttan points out that Norway has actively supported the adoption of electric vehicles through incentives, where Singapore is lacking. In addition, despite the lack of incentives, Singapore aims to have roughly 10 times more charging point density than Norway, leaving their goal questionable and seemingly far-fetched. Finally, he emphasises that a strain on the supply of electric vehicles may further threaten Singapore’s goals.
Although I have no doubt that the mass adoption of electric vehicles will bring about great environmental benefits, and that it is on the horizon for Singapore, I believe Singapore will face substantial scaling challenges that stem from contradictory government policies.
This is supported by Iswaran (2012) who argues that electric vehicles reduce carbon emissions and oil-related economic and scarcity gains that stem from petroleum vehicles. He emphasizes that in comparison, petroleum vehicles produce up to five times more in CO2 emissions, where the adoption of EVs will help to greatly reduce the production of greenhouse gases. In addition, Singapore has not only amped up plans to install 28,000 charging points, but also created the National Electric Vehicle Centre (NEVC) to spearhead and facilitate the “safe and innovative development of new EV-related technologies in Singapore" (Land Transport Authority, 2021). NEVC plays an important role in the movement by working closely with Government agencies and industry stakeholders to equip the workforce with new capabilities and organise new EV-related activities in Singapore.
However, Singapore still has to address large gaps in its efforts to scale the mass adoption of EVs. Despite the clean and green efficiency offered by EVs, the road tax on EVs are sky high in comparison to traditional internal combustion engines. For example, as of January 2022, a brand-new Mercedes GLC SUV costs 300k, and has an annual road tax of about $1.8k. A Tesla Model 3 on the other hand, costs $170k but has an annual road tax of about $5k. (SGCarMart, n.d.) The costly difference in road tax has deterred numerous potential buyers from making the switch to EVs, where the government remains a pivotal deterrence. In addition, as mentioned by Kuttan (2020), earlier, Singapore has not implemented any incentives for potential buyers to make the switch to EVs, unlike Norway’s government, who offers generous tax regimes and free charging stations in an effort to encourage its citizens to adopt EVs. These policies, and the lack of such by the government, read almost contradictory and bring into question Singapore’s commitment towards the mass adoption of EVs.
Overall, while Singapore effectively recognizes the value of EVs and has made a good effort to abolish internal combustion engines, greater strides have to be made in terms of government policies and incentives in order for Singapore to scale to the mass adoption of EVs and to reach their current goals.
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