Hybrid car sales in Singapore pick up speed

Christopher Tan, Straits Times 29 Nov 07;

HYBRID cars first hit the roads here in 1999 and, after a slow start, sales are finally picking up.

In the first 10 months of the year, 516 of these 'green' cars were snapped up, more than the entire population of 379 hybrids on the road as of the end of last year.

Hybrids are vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine as well as by one or more electric motors. The latter are driven by onboard batteries which are recharged when the car is running on petrol and when it brakes.

They consume 15-40 per cent less fuel than conventional models of the same size and produce less tailpipe emissions.

In Singapore, buyers enjoy a 40 per cent rebate on such cars' open market values. Even so, they cost 10 to 20 per cent more than conventional cars.

The most popular make here is the Honda Civic Hybrid, which attracted 308 buyers in the first 10 months. It was followed by the Lexus RX400h (109 units sold), the Toyota Prius (78 units) and the Lexus LS600h (21 units).

Mr Vincent Ng, product manager at authorised Honda agent Kah Motor, said: 'We could have sold a lot more, but the factory could not supply us with more.'

The green Civic is priced between the 1.8 and 2.0-litre conventional Civic models, at around $80,000. Mr Ng expects supply to rise next year. He also said that two more hybrid Honda models will arrive by 2009.

Mr William Choo, Borneo Motors' director of Lexus sales and marketing, said another Lexus hybrid sedan - the GS450h - is due in the second half of next year.

Mr Choo said that Toyota has a wide range of hybrids and Borneo Motors is negotiating to import more of them.

'I envisage the hybrid Camry to have a much higher sales volume,' he said.

Parallel importer Richburg Motors sells a hybrid multi-purpose vehicle, the Toyota Estima.

Consumers who have warmed to these environmentally friendlier cars said they are happy with their choices, especially in a climate of record petrol prices.

The Singapore Environment Council's executive director Howard Shaw, who owns two Priuses, said: 'I used to visit the petrol station four times a month. It's down to twice or once a month.'

Mr Shaw attributes the higher hybrid sales to two other factors. 'Hybrids have been around for some time, so people are less paranoid about the new technology.'

He also pointed to the 'healthier' tax rebate - double the previous rate - which took effect in January last year.

While sales have picked up, hybrids still constitute less than 1 per cent of total new car sales.