Electric vehicles (EVs) continue to face many obstacles in Singapore. One such pain point is the road tax for EVs.
Current road tax in Singapore makes EVs more expensive to own compared with a petrol car of similar size and performance. This pushes car buyers towards petrol cars instead of EVs. Yet EVs are far more efficient than petrol cars, being more environmentally friendly and coming with less than half of the fuel/charging costs.
Leading EV-maker Tesla would be subject to a tax of about $4,000 a year for its Model 3 if it were available here. The road tax was associated as an Emission Tax but many feel that with EVs coming on-stream it will now resemble a Power Tax. A suggestion is to update the road tax and base it on the vehicle’s efficiency or carbon dioxide emission ratings, instead of power rating or engine size. This will price in the environmental impact of vehicles, and encourage the take-up of EVs.
