Singapore wants to go ‘car-lite’, says transport authority in response to Elon Musk tweet
Musk said Tesla had tried to break into Singapore, but the government was not ‘supportive of electric vehicles’
By Chen Lin
Responding to Tesla founder Elon Musk’s assertion that Singapore’s policies are not supportive of electric vehicles (EVs), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said that it encourages the adoption of greener and cleaner vehicles such as hybrid buses and electric vehicles.
However, while this is part of its approach to “address emissions from the land transport sector and improve air quality”, the aim is to achieve Singapore’s car-lite vision.
Of the 348 fully-electric cars registered here, seven are registered to private individuals, and there are three Tesla Model S’s on Singapore’s roads, added LTA.
On May 26, American entrepreneur Musk – who is the chief executive officer of electric car maker Tesla – tweeted in response to a netizen asking if he could “allow us in Singapore to get a Tesla”. Mr Musk had written: “We tried, but (the) Singapore government is not supportive of electric vehicles.”
His remark reignited a debate on electric vehicles in Singapore, as netizen Joe Nguyen had said in an online post in 2016 that he had to pay S$15,000 (US$11,260) in carbon surcharges for his Tesla car. This was in addition to the seven month wait for his car to be approved and registered here.