Abstract
As a compact city-state with a modern electricity grid and relatively clean energy sources, Singapore seems ideal for the deployment of the battery electric vehicle (BEV). A fleet of 89 BEVs were deployed in a test-bed that was concluded in 2013. The paper conducts a cost-effectiveness analysis and financial analysis of the Renault Fluence ZE and its comparable gasoline model to assess the economics of BEVs. It concludes that BEV adoption in Singapore is both undesirable (due to higher social costs) and unlikely (due to higher private costs) in the immediate and near future. Where 94% of the population live in high-rise apartments, there will be a heavy reliance on costlier communal charging stations, thereby mitigating the operating savings that BEVs could have offered if home chargers were used. Lifetime costs are not as sensitive to changes in oil prices as expected. For the BEV to be socially viable, the breakeven carbon price amounts to S$9,700 per tonne of CO2, which suggests that BEVs are not a cost-effective means of reducing carbon emissions in Singapore, or battery prices would need to be halved. Nevertheless, the study demonstrates that exempting the BEV batteries from taxation could support BEV adoption if that were to be a government objective.
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