Smart Car Rental will offer eco-friendly cars for hire later this year
Christopher Tan, Straits Times 27 Feb 10;
WANT to drive an electric car without blowing a small fortune on buying one?
Such eco-friendly cars, which cost twice as much as petrol equivalents, will be available for rent later this year from Smart Car Rental, a sister company of taxi operator Smart Taxis.
Smart will start this new business with three electric Mitsubishi hatchbacks and charge a rental of $150 a day - about twice the rate for an equivalent petrol model. It will add at least two more cars, possibly of other makes, later on.
The first electric cars will arrive in Singapore for test-bedding later this year. The Government will grant buyers a tax waiver under a research scheme open to corporations and institutions, but not individuals.
Smart Car Rental owner Johnny Harjantho said his battery-powered fleet 'will give us a unique selling point', as the average motorist without deep pockets is unlikely to be able to afford one.
He is also partly motivated by his pro-environment beliefs, he added. Three in 10 of Smart Taxi's fleet of 750 cabs run on compressed natural gas (CNG), deemed more environmentally friendly than diesels.
Of the electric cars, Mr Harjantho said: 'If we can rent them out more than 15 days a month, we'll make money.' His current rental fleet is made up of 10 CNG cars and more than 50 petrol cars.
The new battery-powered Mitsubishis cost around $90,000 each after the Government's tax exemption. When operational expenses such as maintenance, insurance and financing are factored in, each car will cost Smart about $160,000.
Meanwhile, other parties are also looking at leasing electric vehicles, as they can benefit from the revised tax incentive announced in this week's Budget for experimental green vehicles.
Multi-brand motor group Wearnes, for example, is working on a leasing scheme for Renault electric cars.
Nissan Asia Pacific's senior manager for marketing and sales Chuya Hara said: 'We hope to bring in our electric vehicle by next year.'
Mitsubishi agent Cycle & Carriage (C&C) said the tax break extension, from two years to six, makes ownership more viable. Users have a longer period for depreciation of the cars, explained Mr Alvyn Ang, director of operations of C&C, which will supply Smart Car Rental with its first electric cars.
To qualify for the tax break, Prime Taxi plans to convert its petrol-electric hybrid taxis into plug-in hybrids, which run like electric cars but have petrol engines as a back-up.
Mr Zafar Momin, a lecturer at Nanyang Business School and a former automotive specialist with the Boston Consulting Group, said: 'I believe electric cars will get off to a very strong start here... The key issue really will be the economics of ownership.� This is where government subsidies, in whatever form, can make a big difference.'
