Singapore Bans Diesel Cars 2025 Onwards, Philippines Cuts Hybrid Import Taxes

Diesel-powered passenger cars and taxis could soon be a thing of the past in neighbouring Singapore.

Some news from the ASEAN region’s automotive landscape. We’ll start with neighbouring Singapore and the island republic is set to ban the registration and sale of new diesel-powered passenger cars and taxis soon.

Earlier this week, the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) made the announcement stating that it will no longer allow registration of new diesel-powered cars and taxis starting Jan 1, 2025.  

The ban on new diesel-powered cars also applies to taxis, thus explaining the high number of HEVs and PHEVs being adopted by Singaporean taxi firms. (Images: The Straits Times)

Existing diesel car owners in Singapore can still renew their COEs before the Jan 1, 2025 deadline, but face higher road tax costs. (Images: TopGear Singapore)

The move stems from its government’s bid to have all vehicles on its streets run on clean energy by 2040. A report by Business Times Singapore also adds that the move to phase out pollutive vehicles was announced in the Singaporean parliament some three year ago.

Since then (2021), new diesel passenger cars and taxis registration remained below 1% of Singapore’s annual new vehicle sales total. This upcoming diesel ban also comes before a new rule calling for all new cars and taxis registered to be cleaner-energy models starting from 2030.

As for Certificate Of Entitlement (COE) renewals for existing diesel vehicle owners in the republic, they will still be able to renew their COEs before the Jan 1, 2025 deadline mentioned. However, these owners will face higher road tax costs aimed at discouraging renewal, says the LTA.

This is also part of an existing policy where, depending on a vehicle’s age, an additional surcharge ranging between 10% to 50% is levied for vehicles that are more than 10 years old.

Over in neighbouring Philippines, hybrids (HEVs) and plug-in hybrids now sees import taxes and tariffs removed, regardless if they're come from within our beyond the AFTA-zone.

Moving to the Philippines, the neighbouring ASEAN nation recently saw its government promoting cleaner mobility by slashing import taxes and tariffs on fully imported (CBU) hybrid (HEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles.

In fact, Filipino automotive news portal AutoIndustriya reports that these taxes and tariffs for CBU HEVs and PHEVs have been reduced to zero (0). Critically, this is set to benefit HEV and PHEV models produced outside the ASEAN region in said multi-island republic’s market.

Prior to this, HEV and PHEV models made in and around the ASEAN region already benefitted with zero import taxes and tariffs thanks to the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA). The same perk now applies to HEVs and PHEVs produced and imported from non-AFTA zones until 2028.

In turn, this is set grant key players in the Philippines auto industry a free hand in sourcing more hybrid models to offer customers there. AutoIndustriya further notes that this is set to benefit key Japanese marques such as Toyota, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Subaru.

The portal also noted how this new ruling will benefit key non-Japanese automakers such as Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Stellantis (Puegeot), premium makes such as Porsche, as well as Chinese powerhouses like Geely and GAC.