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SINGAPORE – Rebates on the purchase of cleaner cars will increase by $ 5,000 from January 1 of next year to December 31, 2022 under the Vehicle Emissions Scheme (VES).
Cleaner cabs will see their refunds increased by $ 7,500 in the same time period, under the program aimed at pushing drivers toward more environmentally friendly private transportation models.
Additionally, the most polluting car surcharges will also increase by $ 5,000 for cars and $ 7,500 for taxis, on the carrot and stick model.
This will take effect on July 1, 2021, rather than the beginning of the year to allow time for the market to adjust, and will be in effect until December 31, 2022, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Authority Land Transportation (LTA) said in a joint statement on Thursday (Nov 12).
Officials say the move will help guide Singapore toward its goal of phasing out internal combustion engine vehicles by 2040.
Increased rebates and surcharges mean that cleaner car buyers will receive rebates of up to $ 25,000, compared to the previous $ 20,000, while buyers of the most polluting cars will be penalized $ 25,000, also on top of that. $ 20,000.
The VES scheme was introduced in 2018 to reduce carbon emissions on Singapore’s roads. It classifies vehicles according to the emissions of five pollutants, with the discount or surcharge for each category calibrated accordingly.
The NEA and LTA said they have been effective in encouraging the purchase of cleaner car models, and that the number of new cars that qualify for the two cleanest bands increased by 60 percent between the third quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of this year.
The number of those in the two most polluting bands has fallen by around 20 percent in the same time period.
The improved VES is also a boon for aspiring electric car buyers, whose car models often fall into the cleanest bands.
Along with the early adoption incentive scheme for EV buyers announced by the LTA in February, which offers rebates capped at $ 20,000 per vehicle, the increased rebates under the VES will allow savings of up to $ 45,000 for each new fully electric car.
Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Thursday that industry observers believe costs for motorists choosing between electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles will equalize around 2025, or sooner.
Electric models are now still generally more expensive, and there were only 1,125 electric cars on the road in January 2020.
Ong also touched on Singapore’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure, which has been cited as a potential bottleneck by industry watchers who believe a lack of chargers could stop Singapore’s electric dreams in their tracks.
Singapore currently has 1,800 charging points and plans to increase it to 28,000 by 2030.
Mr Ong repeated what he said in Parliament in October that the authorities are reviewing this plan to see if it could be made more ambitious by linking business parties.
“What is clear is that electric vehicles (electric vehicles) will become a reality, but we must embrace and promote them,” he said.
The LTA and NEA also added that they will be reaching out to industry stakeholders to possibly further fine-tune vehicle categories under the VES in the future.
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