Singapore’s Penalty for Electric Cars – The First Tesla Model S in Singapore

[kuasimi]

https://www.facebook.com/35875932751...type=3&theater


The Alternative View
Like This Page · 12 hrs · Edited ·


In Nov last year, Lee Hsien Loong launched the "Future Ready" project with much fanfare, envisaging Singapore as a Smart Nation leveraging on technology to serve the people.

According to Vivian Balakrishnan who was appointed to head this Smart Nation Programme:

"What we have in Singapore is a well-designed future-ready city built on sound economic principles. And we can actually show the world HOW YOU CAN SAVE MONEY, make a living and save the world at the same time."

Fast forward four months to Mar 2016.

An electric car enthusiast Joe Nguyen posted an open letter recounting his epic adventure dealing with the various government agencies starting with LTA just to get his Tesla Model S electric car registered.

You can read his open letter here:

https://alvinology.com/2016/03/02/op...-in-singapore/

The picture that emerged from the above letter is an LTA that appears to be anything but future ready.

According to Joe Nguyen, LTA was at a loss on how to test his electric car (carbon emission test for car that runs on electricity, anyone?) and even asked him to declare that he would not charge his car using public facilities.

Eventually, LTA decided to slap a $15,000 carbon tax on his electric car.

So, as Joe Nguyen, wrote: "Singapore is the first country in the world that taxes/fines a Tesla car for CO2 emissions."

This episode gives lie to the fanciful picture painted by Lee Hsien Loong and his ilk.

Future ready? We think not.

[sadfa]

Originally Posted by kuasimi

https://www.facebook.com/35875932751...type=3&theater


The Alternative View
Like This Page · 12 hrs · Edited ·


In Nov last year, Lee Hsien Loong launched the "Future Ready" project with much fanfare, envisaging Singapore as a Smart Nation leveraging on technology to serve the people.

According to Vivian Balakrishnan who was appointed to head this Smart Nation Programme:

"What we have in Singapore is a well-designed future-ready city built on sound economic principles. And we can actually show the world HOW YOU CAN SAVE MONEY, make a living and save the world at the same time."

Fast forward four months to Mar 2016.

An electric car enthusiast Joe Nguyen posted an open letter recounting his epic adventure dealing with the various government agencies starting with LTA just to get his Tesla Model S electric car registered.

You can read his open letter here:

https://alvinology.com/2016/03/02/op...-in-singapore/

The picture that emerged from the above letter is an LTA that appears to be anything but future ready.

According to Joe Nguyen, LTA was at a loss on how to test his electric car (carbon emission test for car that runs on electricity, anyone?) and even asked him to declare that he would not charge his car using public facilities.

Eventually, LTA decided to slap a $15,000 carbon tax on his electric car.

So, as Joe Nguyen, wrote: "Singapore is the first country in the world that taxes/fines a Tesla car for CO2 emissions."

This episode gives lie to the fanciful picture painted by Lee Hsien Loong and his ilk.

Future ready? We think not.

Haha. Tax electric car for carbon emission.

If the press is halfway competent, they'll ask elon wad he Thinks.

That's as half assed as paying garbagement Ministers an intelligence bonus

[kuasimi]

[STUFF SINGAPORE] Be prepared for these roadblocks if you want to drive a Tesla in Singapore


http://forums.$$$$$$$$$$$$.com.sg/ea...e-5317109.html

http://www.stuff.tv/sg/features/be-p...a-in-singapore


One man recounts how he spent nearly a year trying to bring a Tesla into Singapore

01 March 2016 / 7:32GMT

by Rahil Bhagat


Few cars in memory have generated the kind of buzz that Tesla's electric cars have made.

Since bursting onto the scene in 2008 with the Tesla Roadster electric sports-car, the California-based car maker has become a byword for showcasing the potential of electric cars in an internal combustion engine dominated world.

Tesla's follow up to the Roadster, the Model S sedan is considered by many to be one of the best four-door cars in the world right now. With its killer looks, great ride, futuristic tech and an electric motor that produces basically zero emissions, you would expect the Model S to be selling like hotcakes in a country like Singapore.

So why aren't they? Well, the answer is quite complicated.

In 2011, Tesla did indeed open an office here. But less than six months later, it departed our shores without selling a single car.

The logic for Tesla would be that, like in countries such as Japan and Malaysia, the Tesla's electric nature would entitle it to receive rebates from the government due to the vehicle being non-polluting. In fact, our government does have such a system, which offers subsidies of S$15,000 if you drive a green vehicle.

However, for some reason, Tesla was not granted this subsidy, seriously hurting efforts to sell the cars here. According to the government, Tesla's cars did not meet certain "technical requirements" for the rebate.

Since then, owning a Tesla in Singapore has been just a pipe dream. That is, until a few weeks ago when IT-professional Joe Nguyen managed to get his own Tesla Model S licensed for the Singapore roads.

We sat down and spoke to Nguyen about the nearly year-long battle against a quagmire of red tape and bureaucracy that he had to go through to drive his beloved Model S, which his son nicknamed, Tessie.


POWERED BY ELECTRICITY
Tessie's journey began not in Singapore, but in Hong Kong, where Nguyen purchased the 2014 model S.

"It's the future of cars. It's green, quick and the perfect car for Singapore," he said.

Until a few years ago, in a country where cars rely on fossil fuel and engines have gotten better and more efficient, electric cars were just not viable. The core physics, that of a mixture of ignited air and fuel driving pistons and a drivetrain to create motion, has not.

Electric cars are a different beast entirely. Instead of using fossil fuels to drive an engine, they use electricity, stored in large battery banks in the chassis of the car to power electric motors. Cars like the Tesla Model S often only have one moving part, the driveshaft. Since there are no fossil fuels, there is no combustion, which translates to the absence of harmful gas.

The downside here is one that owners of smartphones are familiar with - recharging the battery. An electric car is no different. But just like a smartphone, a single charge can go a long way.

"You don't drive very far in Singapore. The range on a Tesla is 380 kilometers which, on a full charge, is more than enough for Singapore. You go home after work and just plug it in. The next morning you wake up, it's fully charged," Nguyen says.

TESSIE, COME HOME
Getting the car into Singapore, Nguyen reveals, was the easy part. "You take the car, put it onto a ship and then bring it down. When it arrives, you pay the customs duties on it and that's that. I thought that would be the end of it but in fact, that's when the whole process starts."

The real challenge came when he had to liaise with the Land Transport Authority (LTA). "The first few weeks, the car just sat in a warehouse gathering dust while the LTA asked me for lots of paperwork," Nguyen said as he recounts the first roadblock in many to come.

As far as Nguyen was concerned, the simple truth was that the powers that be had not dealt with a Tesla before. Instead of adapting their processes to fit this new kind of car, they would rather turn a blind eye.

"They kept asking for more and more paperwork," Nguyen reveals," They wanted the specs, they wanted a number of different metrics, everything from emissions to the certificate of conformity, which is related to petrol cars and Tesla doesn't have it."

So, what now?


ROLLING OUT THE RED TAPE

Before Tessie could even hit the road, it spent a good four months in Nguyen's house after it arrived. It couldn't move on its own power since it wasn't licensed so a truck had to be brought in to move the car anytime it needed to go for an inspection.

LTA then referred Nguyen to the Energy Market Authority (EMA), the government agency in charge of powering Singaporean infrastructure. Unfortunately, he was stymied by red tape once more.

”I was told to call them (EMA) so I called them and they thought that I was an importer. And I said, "No, I'm just a normal individual importing a car." And they asked, "Well, how are you charging it?" To which I answered, "Well, it's a three-pinned plug which I plug into a normal socket."

After more weeks of silence, Nguyen was abruptly told by LTA that he had to take his car down to VICOM, to get it tested for emissions. For Nguyen, this was finally some good news because being electric his car would have no emissions and therefore face no problems with an emission test. The end was seemingly in sight.



MORE WEEKS OF WAITING FOR TESSIE

What was supposed to be a few days turned into a two month ordeal as VICOM put testing the Tesla on hold.

"I figured they had a process for electric cars because there are actual electric cars in Singapore, there's the Nissan Leaf, RND cars, there's Mitsubishi electric cars. But since my Tesla was not brand new, it had to go to VICOM and they admitted that they had never tested an electric car before so they did not know how to proceed."

Eventually, the LTA and VICOM settled on a discharge test to see how much electricity the car consumes and what impact that has on emissions. This process again took weeks longer than it should because instead of charging the car continuously overnight, VICOM turned it on sporadically throughout the day.

When this was done, Nguyen says that LTA told him that, "Well, we need you to sign a declaration that you will not charge using the public infrastructure. You will only charge this car at home. They were afraid I would charge the car in a public place."

So the car was finally road-ready, yet there was still time for another twist in the tale...



NO (REBATE) LOVE FOR TESSIE

So after these hurdles were cleared Nguyen could finally get his Tesla registered. Except for one small problem - the government would not give Nguyen the S$15,000 rebate that eco-friendly cars normally receive.

"I don't get it, there are no emissions. Then they send out the results from VICOM, stating that the car was consuming 444 watt hour per kilometer. These are not specs that I have seen on Tesla's website, or anywhere else for that matter. And then underneath it, there's a conversion to CO2 emission," Nguyen says.

The CO2 conversion pegged the Tesla squarely in the category of large gas guzzlers. Instead of getting the S$15,000 rebate, Nguyen was charged an extra S$15,000 as tax for a non-fuel efficient car.

Nguyen rebuts these claims, citing that according to the US EPA, the Tesla only does 237 watt hour per kilometer and his attempts at presenting this to the powers that be were futile.

In fact, if one checks, a Tesla Model S does about 90 miles per gallon in converted fuel efficiency according to the US EPA. On the other hand, a Toyota Corolla, long held as one of the most fuel efficient cars in the world gets about 32 miles per gallon.

The difference really is staggering.

TESSIE ON THE ROAD

"Just before Chinese New Year LTA sent me a letter that said, you know, this is what it was, and this is what I have to pay," Nguyen said.

He bit the bullet, forked out the cash and today, is most likely the driver of the only legally licensed Tesla in the whole country.

This process though, has made Nguyen something of an advocate for electric cars in Singapore and he has been working to convince the government of the merit of such cars to society. Only time will tell though, if his efforts bear fruit.

In the meantime though, if you see a white Tesla Model S on the streets of Singapore, you probably know who is driving it and could get some good advice on owning this electric unicorn here.


Source: http://www.stuff.tv/sg/features/be-p...a-in-singapore

[11_Frog]

Hahaha, precisely that is how the NO-SUBSTANCE parties operate their modus operandi and the way they PLAYED THEIR CARD close to their or-sim (black) heart !


constantly hunting for support, always on the PRETEXT of lending a helping hand/ear to those who already resent by discreetly pouring gallons and gallons of kerosene onto their personal issue !


pushing our young ignorant teenager to the firing line, made used of him to mock of our retired politician with the intention to flame our judiciary system for being uncompassionate towards juvenile if charged in court. (What a cunning move)


teamed up with foreign media to fabricate stories, spread untrue rumours, create havoc via online platform 24/7, and continuously made allegations flaming our govt on every issue.


Is this how the foreign media, the fugitives, the disgruntled individual and the no-substance no-solution bickering contingents going to lead our country for another next 50 Years ???


Quick quick go all internet online platform again and continue to sabo Singapore and Singaporean how bad our country is, quick quick present it to the entire world via Youtube !!!


By stirring more shit, you will improve the number of readerships, a big thank you to those who work in the media industry !!!


Member of (TOSC) The Online Saboteur Club

[pratatissue126]

Originally Posted by sadfa

Haha. Tax electric car for carbon emission.

If the press is halfway competent, they'll ask elon wad he Thinks.

That's as half assed as paying garbagement Ministers an intelligence bonus

The press is controlled by you-know-who
They'll just act blur lah

[bigangry]

this is one of the more interesting post that kuasimi ever posted.

yes he still trash the govt, but at least this time he posted an interesting article.

[kuasimi]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk talked directly with Singapore Prime Minister to investigate government red tape blocking Tesla
Fred Lambert - 23 hours ago @FredericLambert

https://www.facebook.com/sgshophouse


http://electrek.co/2016/03/06/tesla-...usk-singapore/


http://forums.$$$$$$$$$$$$.com.sg/ea...a-5317907.html



If you think it’s difficult to buy a Tesla in Texas due to direct sales law, wait until you learn what consumers in Singapore have to go through to buy a Model S. Singaporean Joe Nguyen reportedly spent months trying to get a licence for his car to be driven on local roads and instead of having access to the Carbon Emissions-based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS) rebate of $15,000 SDG (~$11,000 USD), he was charged a tax of the same amount after the government determined that the car is not “fuel-efficient”.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke directly with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who assured him that he would investigate the issue.



All cars imported into Singapore have to undergo exhaust emissions and fuel efficiency tests, which for electric vehicles, means having to determine energy consumption and assess carbon emissions produced by electricity generation.

The tests are conducted by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), which reportedly uses the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) R101 standards. Surprisingly, they determined that Nguyen’s Model S was consuming 444 Wh/km (710.4 Wh/mile), which is almost twice as much as EPA’S 237.5 Wh/km (380 Wh/mile) result.

Based on the unbelievably high estimated electric energy consumption and Singapore’s grid emission factor, the Model S ends up on the worst side of the global city’s scale for vehicle pollution (C3 band). A LTA spokesperson said to a local news outlet:

“As for all electric vehicles, a grid emission factor of 0.5 g CO2/Wh was also applied to the electric energy consumption. This is to account for CO2 emissions during the electricity generation process, even if there are no tail-pipe emissions. The equivalent CO2 emission of Mr Nguyen’s car was 222g/km, which is in the CEVS surcharge band,”

Consequently, instead of having access to EV incentives, the Model S is slapped with a $15,000 SDG (~$11,000 USD) surcharge. In comparison, the BMW i3 and i8 both qualify for a $30,000 SDG (~$22,000 USD) rebate.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he spoke directly with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about the issue:





It took Nguyen more than half a year from the time he imported the car last July to get it approved and registered for use on the road, but it was the first Model S tested by the LTA. Hopefully the process will get easier with time, but it will be interesting to see if anything comes out of the PM’s investigation in the surcharge and emission calculations.

Tesla currently doesn’t have a presence in Singapore, but with Musk and the PM getting involved personally, it could potentially lead to developments in the global city for the automaker.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ to get our latest updates on Tesla and electric vehicles.

Our latest articles on Tesla Motors:

• Tesla OS hacker points to upcoming Model S P100D in cryptic message to Elon Musk
• Model 3 unveiling is more important than ever for Tesla investors as short interest reaches record high ahead of the event
• Tesla sends out official invites to a select few for Model 3 unveiling in Los Angeles

[kuasimi]

https://www.facebook.com/allsgstuff/...type=3&theater

Khaw Boon Wan gets into trouble after Elon Musk complains to Lee Hsien Loong?

[kuasimi]

https://www.facebook.com/35875932751...type=3&theater


The Alternative View
Like This Page · 3 hrs ·


Tesla CEO calls Lee Hsien Loong after LTA slaps $15,000 carbon tax on electric car imported by car enthusiast.

Explaining the reason for the tax, the LTA said:

“As for all electric vehicles, a grid emission factor of 0.5 g CO2/Wh was also applied to the electric energy consumption. This is to account for CO2 emissions during the electricity generation process, even if there are no tail-pipe emissions. The equivalent CO2 emission of Mr Nguyen’s car was 222g/km, which is in the CEVS surcharge band."

Many have reacted with incredulity at this news which broke after the owner Joe Nguyen published his open letter on the blog Alvinology.

Is LTA's action a case of bureaucrats simply and blindly going by the book?

We wonder what Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan have to say.

And at press time, Smart Nation Programme minister-in-charge Vivian Balakrishnan remains missing in action.

[sadfa]

Originally Posted by kuasimi

[IMG]https://scontent-sin1-1.xx.


[url]https://www.

Khaw Boon Wan gets into trouble after Elon Musk complains to Lee Hsien Loong?

Haha.

If elon asked old man to look into it, he'll get fcuked on the spot n his press secretary will hold an off the cuff aside briefing to the fcuked up local media where they'll slime elon as a capitalist Impractical dreamer nerd who sells cars who's fcukin rude. He don't know he's talking to a genuine hero/living god who saves lifes? Lifes!!

If elon is a sporean, he will be told to shut up know yr place or we will fix you.

Elon should've asked why they make things so difficult that they can't even sell tesla in spore n nt 15k tax.

Khaw won't get in trouble la.
Everybody know lta is the shits.
Some heads will roll there

[kuasimi]

Originally Posted by sadfa

Haha.

If elon asked old man to look into it, he'll get fcuked on the spot n his press secretary will hold an off the cuff aside briefing to the fcuked up local media where they'll slime elon as a capitalist Impractical dreamer nerd who sells cars who's fcukin rude. He don't know he's talking to a genuine hero/living god who saves lifes? Lifes!!

If elon is a sporean, he will be told to shut up know yr place or we will fix you.

Elon should've asked why they make things so difficult that they can't even sell tesla in spore n nt 15k tax.

Khaw won't get in trouble la.
Everybody know lta is the shits.
Some heads will roll there

Do you think the officer at LTA who inchrage of taxing the Tesla going to be hung out to dry?

http://forums.$$$$$$$$$$$$.com.sg/ea...y-5317968.html

[sadfa]

Originally Posted by kuasimi

[B][SIZE="4"]Do you think the officer at LTA who inchrage of taxing the Tesla going to be hung out to drho-inchrage-taxing-tesla-going-hung-out-dry-5317968.html[/url]

People who say this don't know nuts.
The officer definitely don't have authority to make the final decision of 15k tax.

This whole thing sounds like a very sudden issue raised which lta never even thought of, as seen by asking him to go ema n viacom, which is shocking since tesla been around for some time. Nguyen might as well have asked to register Michael j foxs delorean or the batmobile which shoots missiles

The officer must have been covered by his boss n I'm not surprised if CEO lta knows abt this whole issue PLUS MOT.

if that's the case, khaw will defend them n NOTHING will happen.

This is how u reply. Learn!!

[NgouQueThao]

15K is a relatively small sum compare to the car's price tag. The car's actual worth is only 20K to build.

[11_Frog]

very interesting, all the clones talking among themselves



Breaking news breaking news : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...i/2583306.html




Proud Members of Anti (TOSC) The Online Saboteur Club

[11_Frog]

Who deleted my posts DISCREETLY arh ???