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Our relatively young car population, i think this is extremely excessive to go Euro6

Who are we tryjng to impress? The europeans?

The higher COE prices and vehicle prices are definitely stalling the commercial vehicle side to even switch to Euro 5

Euro 5 presents more maintenance costs to vehicle parts as it gets more complex and commercial vehicle owners would try to steer clear as long as they can.

The sweetener to go Euro compliant was also not taken up.

Seriously, this is a money making scheme to squeeze the business owners and pass on costs to consumers.
Consumers suffer at the end of day.

Our small vehicle population will not make that difference, moreover the so call more efficient smaller vehicles with higher power outputs are stamped by Lta such that leas efficient vehicles are put onto our market.

The bottomline: Who benefits and who are we trying to impress?

Food for thought.
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S'pore targets highest vehicle emission mark
Switch to Euro 6 in 2017 part of effort to reduce hazardous fine particulate matter in the air

Christopher Tan Senior Transport Correspondent
SINGAPORE will adopt the Euro 6 emission standard for petrol and diesel vehicles as early as 2017, making it possibly the first country in the region to embrace the most stringent regulation to reduce harmful exhaust emissions.

Currently, the standard for petrol and diesel vehicles in Singapore is Euro 4 and 5, respectively.

The emission standards are set by the European Union, and impose strict rules on tailpipe gases of new vehicles sold in EU member states. It has also been progressively implemented in Singapore and other countries.

Singapore's move towards Euro 6 is yet another effort to reduce fine particulate matter in the air - a serious health hazard.

The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, responding to queries from The Straits Times, explained that the aim was "to address the concern that recently popular compression injection diesel engines and gasoline direct injection engines actually increase the emissions of ultra-fine particulates".

These ultra-fine particulates make up the bulk of particulate emissions and are very small and light.

Apart from tightening up on particulate emissions, the Euro 6 emission standards will also reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides - another harmful air pollutant - said the ministry.

Although the ministry said that it has not arrived at an implementation date, motor industry players said they have been informed of a rollout in the second half of 2017.

While European brands are confident that they will be able to meet such a deadline - all new European cars registered from January will have to be Euro 6-compliant to meet EU requirements - it may be a challenge for the Japanese, as there is currently no equivalent standard in Japan.

A Toyota Motor Asia-Pacific spokesman said: "We are reviewing our product strategy while working closely with the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, who we understand has provided input to the National Environment Agency."

Mr Vincent Ng, product manager at Honda agent Kah Motor, said: "Honda has indicated that a three-year notice would be a comfortable timeline."

That means it needs formal written notice about now.

A BMW Asia spokesman added: "Currently, about 95 per cent of our portfolio is Euro 6-compliant. Only some models require updates... but all are scheduled to be compliant by end-2015."

Mr Neo Nam Heng, president of the Automobile Importer and Exporter Association, said that it has been told of the 2017 implementation.

But he stressed that all major players must be able to meet that deadline, "otherwise we will have another big headache".

He was referring to the 2006 rollout of Euro 4 for diesel vehicles. The Japanese were not ready then, and that led to a crash in the certificate of entitlement (COE) prices. With that, thousands of commercial vehicle owners extended the lifespan of their ageing fleet - many of which are still on the road today.

The ministry said that it is mindful of the lessons learnt in the 2006 experience, which will be taken into account for all upcoming measures.

While the motor trade has been told of a 2017 target, it seems oil companies - whose products such as petrol and diesel also have to burn more cleanly under the new standards - have a longer time to comply. Currently, such products here need meet only Euro 4 standards.

The Straits Times understands that oil companies have up to January 2018 to meet the Euro 5 standard for diesel. For petrol, they have up to December 2018.

"So far, there's been no word on Euro 6," an industry source said.

Asian Clean Fuels Association executive director Clarence Woo said it is crucial to reduce particulate matter, "some of which are so fine they can enter your body through your skin".

He added that other pollutants such as nitrogen oxides should also be reduced drastically, as these can "lead to secondary formation of particulate matter".

christan@sph.com.sg

Consider the LNG vehicles, for some time, it was being pushed because it is cleaner.

Then it was abandoned.

Lng is definitely considerably cleaner but more cumbersome because it did not have the distance to travel far (freq top up) and limited refueling stations.

Not to mention the more complicated combustion systems that because of the smaller pool of this vehicles, there is no economic scale to repair and service such vehicles.

Support the initiative for cleaner air for everyone.

LNG is very cheap initially as compare to petrol. Probably 1/4 or 1/3 of the cost of crude oil.
Supplier start to raise price until it does not make economical sense except for power station.

Quote: Consider the LNG vehicles, for some time, it was being pushed because it is cleaner.

Then it was abandoned.

Lng is definitely considerably cleaner but more cumbersome because it did not have the distance to travel far (freq top up) and limited refueling stations.

You mean CNG? The scheme was not abandoned. For vehicle taxation, initially the CNG-based vehicles falls under a scheme called GVR (Green Vehicle Rebate), and are given 40% off the OMV of the car in tax rebate. Then the government transitioned it into a wider CEVS scheme, and the rebates can go up to 30k per car. The only problem here is it is limited to the OMV of the car (PARF is charged at 100% of OMV), and most cheap cars OMV do not really exceed 15k currently.

For fuel taxation, prior to this transition the government initially waived the special tax that was supposed to be levied on CNG cars as they don't pay any duty on their fuel. The special tax was ended in 2011 (i.e. no need to pay anymore), and in 2012 they phased in a 20 cts per kg fuel duty on CNG. In terms of energy equivalent (i.e. $ of fuel duty per energy unit of each fuel), CNG's tax is still like only 30% of the duty on normal petrol which attracts something like 40 cents per litre.

For newer cars, given that petro-electric vehicles now enjoy good rebates, it is better to go and buy that rather than CNG cars.

For older drivers converting into CNG this is now not good enough as many don't really want to stay with their cars for more than 3-years to reap the payback for the tank installation. These are the same drivers who are happy to pay top dollar depreciation to change car regularly, so go figure.

As for refuelling stations, given that there are so much unhappiness over how land is used (and generally just about everything in Singapore), there will be no end to complaints if the government allocate bundles of land to build the requisite stations. Let me just get started now
1) why is the petrol companies given so much land to build stations to extort money from us?
2) why is the government giving all the land to build petrol stations? no need to build houses ah?
2) why is the CNG station so close to my house? got hazardous emission you know? and not good for my feng shui?
3) why is the government profiteering from auctioning the land? in the end the cost get passed back to consumers!
4) why is the government giving away land for free? the oil company are getting a freebie and profiteering from us!

And so on ...

I don't think its about impressing anyone really. the scenario is that you can only import cars that comply with Euro 6, else cannot ship into Singapore.
The European manufacturers are going for Euro 6, so that leaves only the Japanese car makers. If you want to sell you cars, you have to be compliant, else you lose SG market.
The onus is on the manufacturer to comply. If SG market is too small for them, then so be it.