Elon Musk: Singapore is Unsupportive of Electric Vehicles

A flippant tweet from a billionaire business magnate has caused an international incident.

Some context – a random Twitter user asked Elon Musk to “do something to allow us in Singapore to get a Tesla.” Musk responded that “We tried, but Singapore govt is not supportive of electric vehicles,” and “The results speak for themselves. Singapore is a very prosperous city and yet has very few electric cars.”

A vast oversimplification.

The Straits Times senior transport correspondent Christopher Tan penned a letter in response, claiming that “Tesla's CEO is mistaken when he tweeted that Singapore is not supportive of electric vehicles.”

For one, Singapore grants electric vehicles up to $20,000 in tax breaks, though a confluence of factors makes that sum a drop in the bucket.

And those factors include Singapore’s high population density – the third-highest in the world – which makes it “not exactly supportive of any car, regardless of their fuel type.”

Meanwhile, Reuters points out that Singapore parcels out cars through “a system of bidding for the right to own and use a vehicle for a limited number of years.” This helps make a mid-range car in Singapore cost “four times the price of an equivalent vehicle in the United States.”

And this should go without saying – Tesla vehicles aren’t on the lower end of the cost curve.

Addressing Musk, Tan noted that “you have chosen to place your cars in the premium segment.”

“Even your latest Model 3 - supposedly a more affordable model - is beyond the budget of most non-millionaires after options are added,” he said.

And given that Singapore has a thriving GDP with a dynamic, free-market economy, and gridlock does nothing but kill productivity, I can’t imagine more cars helping the country.

Read more here: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/unpopularity-of-electric-vehicles-goes-beyond-cost-christopher-tans-reply-to