[sustran] fwd: Singapore incentives for greener cars

[Paul Alexander Barter]

The Straits Times Interactive
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/primenews/story/0,1870,11567,00.html
19 Dec 2000

COE, road tax for green cars fixed 

Details available now will help put electric and 'hybrid' vehicles on the
road here as early as next year 

By Leslie Koh 

MOVES to put green cars on local roads have shifted into higher gear, now
that the authorities have worked out the road tax and COE schemes for
electric and hybrid vehicles.

Electric cars will be registered according to their power rating as their
engine sizes do not correspond to those of normal cars.

Hybrid cars with two types of engines will pay according to either their
power rating or engine size, whichever is higher.

In releasing the details yesterday, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and
the Environment Ministry also passed the ball to the distributors' court.

For many years, not knowing how green cars would be treated and taxed, as
well as their high price, had kept importers from bringing them in.

But last month, the Government announced a long-awaited rebate of 20 per
cent of a green car's open-market value (OMV), effective for three years
starting next January.

And yesterday, it released details about what road taxes and certificate of
entitlement (COE) green car owners will pay from next year. 

For instance, an electric car with a maximum power output of 57.5 kW will be
treated as the equivalent of a 1,600-cc car and thus will require its owner
to buy a category A COE and pay similar road taxes.

Hybrid cars will be subjected to the same formula unless the COEs and road
taxes calculated according to their petrol-driven engines are higher, in
which case owners will pay the higher charges.

Both types of green cars will also get road tax rebates - 10 per cent for
hybrid cars and 20 per cent for electric ones.

But there will be no discount for Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges.

One of the first green cars that Singapore will see next year is the
often-touted Toyota Prius, the world's first mass-produced hybrid car.

The 1.5-litre Prius costs about $32,000 in Japan, but industry observers
estimate it is unlikely to sell for less than $100,000 here.

Toyota distributor Borneo Motors yesterday confirmed that it would bring in
the Prius 'sometime' next year.

Calling the latest details 'comprehensive', marketing director William Choo
said that he was waiting for the Japanese maker to churn out models for the
Singapore market.

Distributors will still have to clear the last hurdle - LTA's safety and
pollution requirements.
 
Copyright © 2000 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.   


Distributed for the purpose of education and research.

Dr Paul Barter
Visiting Fellow
Department of Geography
National University of Singapore 
1 Arts Link, Singapore 117570 
Tel: +65-874 3860; Fax: +65-777 3091 
E-mail: geobpa at nus.edu.sg