Could this be a good joke? How can an electric car emit CO2 in excess? It can, at least in Singapore.
Yes, you’re right: the electric cars do not emit any harmful gas in the atmosphere. However, there are CO2 emissions, because producing electricity means partially using fossil fuels. Here starts our story: in most of the countries, Tesla Model S owners receive a tax credit from the government. That’s why, when a guy called Joe Nguyen bought a Model S in Hong Kong and brought it in Singapore, he was hoping for a tax rebate. He first had to legalize the car, but it was no rebate at all. More, he had to pay a fine for failing the emission test, because the car isn’t environmentally friendly.
So, instead of an over 10.000 USD rebate, he was finned with 10.000 USD! That’s because the Model S needs a 444 Wh/km, which means the equivalent of 221g/km which, according to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) means excessive CO2 emissions. It is unknown how the LTA came with this number, since the real values are well below this one. According the US specs, it uses around 210 Wh/km.
Elon Musk said he had a talk with the Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong and the Asian official said that he will investigate the problem. In my opinion, the problem is that the kilometer in Singapore measures 2.000 meters, so probably they’ll have to re-measure it before repeat the test.
