Singapore — The topic of phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 recirculated on social media, with netizens explaining that the timeline was still too slow compared to other countries.
On Saturday (Dec 4), Facebook page ROADS.sg noted that 2021 might be the year the electric car turned a corner.
“The global electric car market has been growing exponentially, with an estimated 16 million to be in operation by end-2021,” the page noted.
Leading in the transition are China, Europe and the United States, with a combined market share of 94 per cent for the first half of 2021, said ROADS.sg.
“These trends are reflected in Singapore, which registered 487 Tesla cars sold between July and September.”
In July this year, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that Singapore could be “more sustainable” by switching from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles (EV) to electric vehicles.
“An EV emits half the amount of carbon dioxide compared to a similar vehicle powered by ICE,” said LTA.
“If all our light vehicles run on electricity, we would reduce carbon emissions by 1.5 to 2 million tonnes, or about 4 per cent of total national emissions.”
LTA highlighted that Singapore has a “comprehensive EV Roadmap to ramp up efforts for EV adoption” under the Singapore Green Plan 2030.
“Singapore aims to phase out ICE vehicles and have all vehicles run on cleaner energy by 2040,” said LTA.
It is expected for the cost of buying an EV and ICE vehicle to be similar by the mid-2020s.
As the prices of EVs become more attractive, the accessibility of charging infrastructure is vital for encouraging EV adoption.
“In the EV Roadmap, we have set a target of 60,000 EV charging points by 2030,” said LTA.
“We will work with the private sectors to achieve 40,000 charging points in public carparks and 20,000 charging points in private premises.”
However, members from the online community noted that the roadmap appears to be slow compared to other countries.
Facebook user Miguel Teles Amorim shared, coming from Europe and seeing EVs “just in every corner.”
“It is very hard to understand why everyone isn’t driving an EV in Singapore. With such a dense urban environment and minimal problems when it comes to range, every advantage of EVs really shows potential to shine, especially the much higher efficiency and absence of emissions in slow traffic.”
“The absence of EV-range challenges in SG would also allow for slow-or mid-speed charging, easing the burden on the power grid, both on a macro and individual scale.
Proper tax incentives and exemptions of all sorts should accelerate this much needed and desired shift, making up for a greener, cleaner and road-silent country,” he added.
“Look at EU, US and China on how fast they had developed EVs technologies and how fast they had installed the charging stations grids,” said Facebook user Alex Yip.
Meanwhile, China is already in the era of changing out batteries in EV, and we’re still thinking of charging stations, commented another netizen. /TISG
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