As Southeast Asia puts its electric vehicle revolution in gear, are Musk & Co all hype?

There’s no avoiding the exuberance of electric vehicle evangelists these days, and who can blame them? In the midst of all the market see-sawing during the Covid-19 pandemic, the sector has emerged as a darling of investors from Wall Street to Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Notwithstanding the recent declines, the stocks of electric vehicle (EV) makers as well as associated technology companies have roared to all-time highs over the past year.

Meanwhile, governments – keeping in mind the need to boost emission reduction targets before November’s crucial UN climate change meeting COP26 – have been stepping up policy adjustments to move their consumers away from internal combustion engines (ICEs).

Singapore, the ever-willing test bed for cutting-edge public policies and regulations, in February stepped up its EV push, with Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announcing a sweeping set of policies that included an immediate hike in petrol duties, registration fee rebates for new EVs, and a plan to expand the number of charging stations to 28,000 by 2030 from 1,600 currently.

The republic, one of the world’s key oil-refining hubs, now hopes to phase out ICEs by 2040, a goal that is within range of the more ambitious 2035 deadline set by California in the United States.