Environmental friendliness cited as top reason for EV adoption in Singapore

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SINGAPORE - A survey by online research data and analytics group YouGov has revealed that environmental friendliness and lower running costs are the top reasons cited by electric car owners in Singapore for purchasing electric vehicle (EV).

While YouGov did not detail the exact composition of the survey respondents, it says that the data was derived from YouGov Profiles, which continuously collects data and conducts rolling surveys. YouGov states that Profiles pulls over two million data variables from 20 million members in over 49 markets, and its data for Singapore is nationally representative and weighted by age, gender and race.

The survey from YouGov showed that 44 per cent of EV owners cited ‘protecting the environment’ as one of the main reasons for buying an EV. 28 per cent said that lower running costs, such as maintenance, are a major pull factor, while 25 per cent said that being able to save money on fuel is a major attraction of EVs.

Other reasons given for purchasing EVs in Singapore included the quietness of EVs (23 per cent), and better acceleration as compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) cars (19 per cent).

Tesla ranked highly among EV owners as leaders in environmentally friendly tech

The survey also asked respondents to name the brands that they consider to be leaders in sustainability and environmentally friendly technology, and Tesla emerged on top with 34 per cent of respondents ranking it in first. Next was BMW which was cited by 24 per cent of respondents, while Honda was third at 19 per cent.

Finally, respondents were asked to rank the car brands in terms of automotive innovation, and 37 per cent named BMW as leading the field. Tesla was close behind with 36 per cent, while 30 per cent cited Audi as leaders in innovation.

Singapore has been seeing a major growth in EV adoption over the past two years, with the latest figures showing that EVs make up 8.4 per cent of new car registrations so far this year, a 20-fold jump from 2020. The EV population is expected to grow even further in the years ahead, with pending legislation set to put in place to bolster the adoption of EVs in Singapore.

This article was first published in CarBuyer.