Last month, The Business Times' associate editor Vikram Khanna renewed his car's COE for only five years. He explains why
The car industry has passed a major inflexion point: The transformational technology of electric cars has gone mainstream and people are buying them.
In terms of performance, electric vehicles (EVs) beat even the most gizmo-rich internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. They accelerate faster, as torque is immediate.
Tesla Motors' high-end Model S gets from zero to 96.6kmh in just 2.8 silent seconds.
Last year, the GreenTeam Formula Race car - an electric car developed at the University of Stuttgart - accelerated from a standing position to 100kmh in 1.78 seconds, making it faster than any Formula 1 racing car. EV engines are also more efficient, more than twice as those of ICE cars, according to a fact sheet on EVs by the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
Braking is also more efficient, as EVs use regenerative braking, which means that part of the energy used during braking is recaptured in the battery to be used again.
Some EVs are even semi-autonomous.
The Tesla Model S, for instance, has an auto-pilot feature that enables a certain amount of self-steering.
But electric cars do not just score on acceleration, efficiency and features.
They are also more reliable and cheaper to maintain than ICE cars. They have few moving parts and they do not need oil changes, tune-ups, mufflers, timing belts or catalytic converters.
They are also famously more environmentally-friendly than ICE cars, especially if charged from a renewable energy source. The most expensive component of electric cars is their batteries.
Although, thanks to technological improvements, battery costs have fallen by about 30 per cent since 2006 and are likely to fall further. But they are still pricey. And battery charging is cumbersome.
LTA points out that a standard full charge can take about eight hours, and enables the car to run up to 160km, about three times the average daily driving distance of 55km here.
It means you would have to charge your car overnight every three days on average. But charging technologies are rapidly evolving. In 2013, Bosch Software Technologies installed at Changi City Point mall the first fast charger for EVs, which can do a full charge in 30 to 45 minutes.
The following year, an Israeli company called StoreDot unveiled a new "flash battery" system that can charge an EV in five minutes - about the same time it takes to fill your tank with petrol.
Plus, the battery is said to have a range of 480km.
But although battery technology has improved, the charging infrastructure here does not have mass coverage.
There are close to 100 charging stations across the island, but you would have to hunt for one, and then perhaps wait in line. But this, too, is changing.
2,000 CHARGING POINTS
On May 9, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in Parliament that the Government plans to set up 2,000 EV charging points across Singapore.
The ministry has invited proposals for such a roll-out and they are in the final stage of evaluation.
The charging infrastructure is not prohibitively expensive to set up. One can imagine there would be charging points in public carparks and eventually in public and private housing estates.
Once the planned 2,000 charging stations are up and running, you will not have to hunt for long for a charging point. You will not have to travel far to get to one either.
EV manufacturers, too, are working on making battery charging easier and cheaper.
For instance, in the US, Tesla offers "supercharger" stations that can do a full charge in 40 minutes to all of its customers for the life of their cars. Other car companies who want to sell their EVs will find ways to make it easy for customers to charge them.
As for ticket price, electric cars started out prohibitive. But, as with any new product, prices drop as the technology improves and economies of scale develop.
We are seeing that with electric cars, just as we saw it with PCs, data storage devices and mobile phones.
The world's best selling electric car, the Nissan Leaf, is available here for $105,000 to $109,000, including the certificate of entitlement (COE), according to the website of Stellar Motors, which sells the car.
But it may cost a bit more now, after the recent rise in COEs.
The Leaf has a range of 160km on a full charge, which costs around $4.
Late next year, Tesla Motors is due to launch its Model 3, a mass market electric car that has a range of around 340km on a single charge. Priced at US$35,000 (S$47,600) in the US, it will be sold here too, and some motorists here have already placed their orders.
EVs here are eligible for rebates under the Carbon Emissions-Based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS), which was revised in July last year.
Under the new scheme, cars registered from July 1, 2015 with carbon emissions of less than or equal to 135g per kilometre would qualify for rebates of between $5,000 and $30,000, which will be offset against the vehicle's Additional Registration Fee.
Aside from electric cars, there is also a growing range of two-, three- and four-wheel light electric vehicles that do not need charging stations. They increase the options for getting around.
Then there are car-sharing schemes - already available here - that enable you to rent a vehicle by the hour whenever you need one. Mr Khaw has said that the Government is evaluating an electric car-sharing programme, under which 1,000 EVs will be on the roads within 10 years.
The option of not owning a car at all will become increasingly attractive. My bet is that within five years, we will have many options for personal transportation that we do not have today, some of which we might not even be thinking about today.
Buying a new ICE car today seems a bit like buying a state-of-the-art horse-drawn carriage after the introduction of the Ford Model T at the dawn of the 20th century.
That's why I renewed my COE for five years.
source by http://news.asiaone.com/