More Financial Incentives and Charging Points to Encourage Electric Car Usage

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Transport (a) what is the Ministry's position on use of electric cars in Singapore; (b) whether there are plans to offer financial incentives to encourage more motorists to use electric cars; and (c) whether the Ministry will install more charging points for electric cars.

Madam, we encourage the use of vehicles that are more environmentally-friendly, or green, including electric cars. And that is why we incentivise low carbon emission cars through the Carbon Emissions-based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS), which we have just had a discussion earlier. CEVS is outcome-based and neutral with respect to the type of technology used.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Economic Development Board (EDB) had earlier issued a Request for Information (ROI) to invite proposals for a nationwide electric car-sharing programme. Besides trialling electric car-sharing services, the programme will also see the installation of 2,000 charging points across Singapore. The proposals are in the final stages of evaluation.

All that said, the greenest form of transport is public transport. So, do follow my example. If you cannot be a 100% public transport user, at least be a part-time public transport user. It is a little bit like being vegetarian. If you cannot do 100% like me, even 初一,十五, just twice a month, is good. [Laughter.] So, at least one day a week, I use public transport throughout the day. And sometimes, I do it two days a week. The greenest form of transport is public transport. Even though electric cars produce no tail-pipe emissions, the process of generating the electricity they consume emits carbon dioxide. We must move towards a car-lite Singapore.

Madam, I would like to ask the Minister on the 2,000 charging points, whether it is only for those in the car-sharing scheme, or any member of the public can use the charging points. I think not everybody would like to join the car-sharing scheme.

My favourite Member of Parliament has caught me on this tiny little detail! I am not sure, I got to check. I suppose it will apply to the trial participants of the car-sharing scheme, but as the facilities are out there and if other people would like to use them, they may charge them for its usage. I do not know. They may charge the battery, as well as charge the user, I think.

A supplementary question. I understand that London launched the world's first fully electric-powered double-decker bus in March this year. Would the Ministry of Transport (MOT) consider using electric vehicles for public transport?

The answer is yes. Eventually we will try to make use of all this new technology. I covered those points during my reply in the Committee of Supply debate, that driverless vehicles and the use of greener fuel like electricity, should all be explored. In fact, besides the trial project involving 2,000 charging points and car-sharing, we have two other trials which are going on. One is for buses; one is for taxis, and commercial trucks. We certainly intend Singapore to be among the early adopters, if not among the early pioneers on the use of such technology because we are a city, compact and, especially for electric vehicles, you can cover a long distance with a single charge. I read that for Tesla Model 3, they are talking about covering almost 400 kilometres with one charge. At that rate, you can drive all the way to Kuala Lumpur.