An Easy Guide to EV and EV Charging Incentives in Singapore
8 minutes
In 2020, the Singapore Government laid out new plans to phase out the use of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, with a major new push towards a green future for the Southeast Asian island.
Here are the incentives for electric car drivers in Singapore.
For cars registered between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2022:
S$25,000 rebate for Band A EVs
S$15,000 rebate for Band A2 EVs
VES and EVES are usually based on a vehicle’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, plus emissions of 4 pollutants – hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM). For EVs and PHEVs, however, an emission factor of 0.4g CO2/Wh will be applied to its electrical energy consumption to rate its carbon emission.
Click here for the classification of the different brands of EVs.
New EVs and taxis registered between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2023 will receive a 45% rebate off the additional registration fees (ARF) tax. This rebate is capped at S$20,000
This scheme applies to private EV vehicles as well as fleet vehicles such as taxis and rental EVs.
The Singapore Government has also stated it will revise the methodology for calculating the variable component of the road tax for EVs.
The revised structure, which will be tiered by power ratings, will incentivize the use of energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly vehicles, with an across-the-board reduction in road tax for EVs and certain HEVs.
In addition to the above incentives, Singapore has announced that it will only purchase electric buses from now on. Ten double-decker electric buses were introduced at the end of 2020 and by 2040 the government plans to have all 5,800 fully electric.
500 new EV charging points to be installed throughout Singapore in 2021.
The producers of the charge+ charging points, clean energy company Sunseap Group, plan to install 10,000 new EV charging points in Singapore by 2030.
In addition to this, the Singapore Government recently announced its aim to install up to 28,000 charging points in public car parks by 2030, with around ⅔ of them to be installed in housing estates across the country, with the remaining ⅓ to be located on roadside and in car parks.
A Greener Future for Singapore
Only a couple of years ago, Singapore was criticized by a certain EV enthusiast for not being supportive of the electrification movement. A small island city-state, Singapore is seen as an ideal place for EV drivers, a fact that makes their slow EV adoption rates all the more perplexing.
With only 1,330 EVs and 1,600 charging points registered in Singapore at the end of 2019, it was clear changes were needed.
But with the October 2020 budget came the announcement of several key measures, designed to incentivize the switch towards EV adoption. When coupled with news that Tesla plans to build a charging network in Singapore, as well as the government’s plans for a huge increase in public EV charging stations, the future for EV drivers in Singapore now looks brighter than ever.
