Car Ownership Trends

The following question stood in the name of  Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong –

To ask the Minister for Transport (a) what is the trend of the car population in Singapore, in terms of its growth over the last five years, the number of cars per household and the profile of households owning cars; (b) whether that growth is sustainable; (c) what is the proportion of land in Singapore used for roads and carparks; (d) what is the projection of the car population for the next five to 10 years; and (e) whether a study on the environmental impact of the rising number of cars has been conducted.

Madam, Ms Irene Ng asked about the growth trend and the household ownership profile of the car population in Singapore. Over the last five years, the car population increased by an average of 4% per annum, from 514,694 cars at the start of 2008 to 617,556 cars at the end of 2012. The growth rate in the last two years has come down to 1.9% per annum, in line with the lower allowable vehicle growth rate. As of 2012, about 45%, or nearly one in two households, own a car, up from about 40% in 2008. We estimate that between 8% and 9% of households in Singapore have more than one car. In other words, fewer than one out of 10 households own more than one car.

Our Vehicle Quota System aims for sustainable growth in our vehicle population. Today, our road infrastructure already takes up close to 12% of our land space. Going forward, given our land constraints, we must endeavour to moderate further road growth. Hence, we decided to reduce the allowable vehicle growth rate from 3% per annum, which was the rate since we introduced the Vehicle Quota System in 1990, to 1.5% per annum in 2009, and we have further reduced it to 1% per annum in 2012 and to 0.5% per annum in February 2013.

Ms Ng also asked whether a study on the environmental impact of the growth of our car population has been conducted. This was done for the

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National Climate Change Strategy 2012, which is a multi-agency plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Singapore, including those from the transport sector. One of the measures introduced to reduce emissions from the car and taxi population is the Carbon Emissions-based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS), which was implemented in January 2013.