Electric car firm pulls plug on Singapore

Tesla exits after failing to secure 'green' tax incentives, making its cars unviable here
Christopher Tan Straits Times 12 Feb 11;

AMERICAN electric car company Tesla Motors is pulling the plug on plans to market its zippy, battery-powered sports cars to the wealthy and environmentally hip here - just six months after setting up an office at Suntec to do just that.

It will pack up next week, without having sold a single car.

The Straits Times understands that the company is pulling out because it failed to secure 'green' tax incentives for its cars, making them unviable.

The two-seater Tesla Roadster, which runs entirely on lithium-ion batteries that can be charged from a normal household socket, would cost $400,000 to $500,000 without the incentives.

That is in the ballpark of cars like the Porsche 911 and Maserati Granturismo.

But had the tax break been granted, the car would have cost around $250,000 or less.

The Economic Development Board, which is in charge of approving the tax break, said Tesla had not met 'technical requirements'.

A Tesla insider said the company had garnered about a dozen bookings, most on condition that the tax break be granted. A few were willing to buy the car without the tax break, but Tesla said the numbers were too small to justify its presence here.

One of the willing was businessman Melvin Tan, 38, who said: 'Too bad. I really quite liked the car.'

Tesla Motors Asia-Pacific director Kevin Yu told The Straits Times: 'Unfortunately, Singapore has not turned out to be the market we hoped it would be.

'Given the Roadster's limited production run and the enthusiastic support from both customers and governments for the vehicle in other markets, Tesla has decided to focus our limited resources elsewhere.'

He cited some examples of 'enthusiastic support'. They include Japan, which is granting 2.61million yen (S$40,000) in cash rebate for each Tesla buyer; Hong Kong and Malaysia, where electric vehicles are tax exempt; and various cities in Europe and America, which have similar tax breaks of varying amounts.

Mr Yu added: 'We do hope that at some point in the future conditions will be right for re-entry...we have no plans at this point.'

Meanwhile, Singapore's plan to test-bed a fleet of electric cars is still stuck in the slow lane.

Public infrastructure for charging the cars is expected to be up and running only in the middle of the year, though the first batch of cars has arrived.

Cycle & Carriage has brought in a fleet of 10 Mitsubishi iMiEV hatchbacks - the first of 25 committed here for the test-bed. The cars, which are set to be granted tax breaks, will sit in a warehousing area for the next half-year or so.

Nissan and Renault said they hope to bring in electric models later this year, but are awaiting the green light regarding the tax rebate.

The effort to bring in a trial fleet of electric cars - to test their durability in a hot, humid environment - started several years ago.