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 These days, environmental concerns have become one of the hottest topics in the media. Oscar-winning documentary The Inconvenient Truth, the Live Earth series of concerts this July, as well as the naming of Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners, have all helped raise awareness about our environment and the negative impact of climate change. With all the hype from the media, more and more people are starting to realize the importance of going green and making lifestyle choices that are environmentally responsible. To borrow a cliché from the fashion industry, green is the new black.
With this, comes the rise of the alternative fuel vehicle. An alternative fuel vehicle is a vehicle that runs on fuel other than traditional gasoline or diesel petrol. It includes electric cars, hybrid cars, as well as biofuel-powered cars.
Electric cars are cars whose motors run on electricity instead of petrol. They rely on batteries which have to be charged via an electrical socket. Such vehicles have always had issues with high battery costs, limited travel distance between battery recharging, charging time, and battery lifespan, and thus are highly unpopular. There are only two models of electric cars in mass production today, namely the REVA and the ZAP Xebra.
 A more popular alternative, and also the most common type of alternative fuel vehicle is the hybrid car. A hybrid car is a vehicle which combines a conventional propulsion system (a traditional petrol-powered engine) with an on-board rechargeable electric motor. Typically, the hybrid car uses the electric motor for low-speed cruising while the petrol-powered motor is used for longer, faster journeys. From standstill, the hybrid car accelerates using only the electric motor. During this process, the petrol-powered engine does not start, so the car moves without using any petrol. When the electric motor reaches its limit, the petrol-powered engine quietly starts and takes over, providing the hybrid car with the power to reach higher speeds and charge its battery concurrently. When braking, the hybrid uses its electric motor as a generator to produce electricity, which is stored in its battery. On the whole, this helps to achieve better fuel economy than a conventional vehicle, which in turn reduces vehicular emissions. Common models of hybrid cars available in Singapore include the Honda Civic Hybrid 1.3 CVT, the Lexus RX 400h, the Lexus LS600H and the Toyota Prius.
Finally, there is the biofuel-powered car. Like its name suggests, this refers to any car powered by biofuel. Biofuel is renewable, unlike regular gasoline petrol. It can also save from 60% to 80% of carbon emissions, as compared to gasoline. There are several varieties of biofuel, which include ethanol, methanol, biodiesel and compressed natural gas. Regular cars can be retrofitted to become biofuel vehicles with little or no modifications. Some flexible-fuel vehicles or dual-fuel vehicles can even alternate between two sources of fuel, either because they have engines that can accept a mixture of two types of fuel, like gasoline mixed with ethanol (commonly known as gasohol), or because they carry two different petrol tanks.
Auto engine exhausts contribute to about half of the atmospheric pollution in most industrialized cities. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, driving a car is the single most polluting thing that most people do. Alternative fuel vehicles help to alleviate this problem by reducing the emissions per vehicle. Hybrid cars have been shown reduce pollution by one third.
However, the uptake of alternative fuel vehicles in Singapore is still rather low, with only 200 out of Singapore’s private car population of 401,000 being comprised of these “green vehicles”. Common reasons for this include a lack of awareness on how alternative fuel vehicles work and uncertainty over their maintenance.
Another reason is the relatively higher prices of such vehicles. For example, the 1.5-litre Toyota Prius comes with the hefty price tag of $94,488 with COE. In comparison, the Toyota Vios 1.5E, which is of the same size, costs only $55,488 with COE, almost 41.3% cheaper than the Prius.
Nevertheless, there are significant benefits to driving alternative fuel vehicles. As far as hybrid cars are concerned, cutting down on fuel consumption is not only beneficial to the environment, but also reduces the costs of petrol. Most hybrid cars reduce fuel consumption by around 50 percent compared to regular cars of the same size. Similarly, compressed natural gas gives roughly the same mileage per litre of fuel, but costs only about half the price of regular gasoline. In the month of October alone, all four brands in Singapore increased their pump prices by 8 to 10 cents. With the price of crude oil hitting an all-time high this month, petrol prices look set to increase even further. Switching to a hybrid car or a compressed natural gas-powered car would mean effectively halving your monthly petrol bill, which translates to incredible cost savings over the long run.
Further, owners of alternative fuel vehicles also enjoy a Green Vehicle Rebate of 40% of the vehicle’s Open Market Value. This rebate covers electric cars, hybrid cars, as well as compressed natural gas cars. Several commentators have called on the government to signal its commitment towards reducing carbon emissions by increasing the Green Vehicle Rebate to 60% of the Open Market Value, and by implementing a carbon dioxide emission tax, similar to that in the United Kingdom. Should these measures be adopted, alternative fuel vehicles may soon become as commonplace as any other family sedan you can find on the streets.
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