The Singapore government plans to introduce a series of monetary incentives from next year to support the growth of electric vehicles in the country.

“Our vision is to phase out ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles and have all vehicles run on cleaner energy by 2040,” Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said in his budget speech on Tuesday.

The early adopter subsidy scheme will provide EV buyers with a 45% rebate on the additional registration fee, which is capped at SGD20,000 (USD14,370).

The government also plans to expand the public charging infrastructure in the island-nation from the current 1,600 to 28,000 charging points by 2030.

Prime Minister & Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said the effort to fight climate change could be done with the transition to a low-carbon, low-emissions economy: 

“We are placing a significant bet on electric vehicles and leaning policy in that direction because it is the most promising technology,” he said.

The electrification adoption scheme will begin rollout in January 2021, from where it will remain in place for three years.

The wealthy island-nation of 5.7 million people joins Norway, Britain and others in setting a target to limit the use of vehicles with combustion engines.

Heng explained that the approach would go through three prongs: Incentives to push drivers to adopt EV technology, a revision to road tax methodology to provide additional incentives to switch to electrified transportation and finally expanding public charging infrastructure.

The electrification adoption scheme will begin rollout in January 2021, from where it will remain in place for three years. It is not entirely clear how the government plans to continue after the three-year period, but it stands to reason that an analysis of the effectiveness of the programmes will be undertaken and potential adjustments made.