Cost Of Owning An Electric Car In Singapore 2025

• The actual exact cost of owning an EV differs from EV to EV, as it really depends on the model of your EV, the age of the EV, and many other factors like NCD, prices of COE, and vice versa. 
• You’ll need to set aside different amounts for the basic costs which comprise car insurance, road tax, COE, Additional Registration Fee (ARF), excise duty fee and monthly charging fees.
• Switching from a regular petrol car to an EV can help you make great savings through special schemes such as the EV Early Adoption Incentive (EEAI) which runs from now till the end of 2023, and the Vehicle Emission Scheme (VES) which lets you get up to $25,000 rebate.

Besides the much-hyped-about Tesla, there are many other electric car models available in Singapore such as those by Nissan, Audi, Honda, just to name a few. Here are some of the models available at the moment and how much they cost. All prices quoted with reference from the latest available price lists (as at August 2022) on SGCarMart.

It’s not surprising that these prices may seem a little steep because electric cars still cost a premium compared to their petrol counterparts.

Here comes the real thing — calculating the total cost of owning an electric car. However it differs from EV to EV, depending on the model of the car, the age of the car, and many other factors like NCD and so on. 

Let’s just say you decide to purchase a more affordable model by Honda and it’ll already cost you about $185,000 (including COE) at the beginning. Besides the cost of the vehicle, you’ll have to factor in the following costs: 

1. Car insurance – In the first year of owning an EV, the car insurance is likely to cost over $1,000. Thereafter, it’ll usually range between $2,000 to $5,000 depending on the model and make of your EV and your NCD status.
2. Road tax – It’ll come up to about $800 a year for a 60kWh full electric car. However, road tax will be reduced for electric cars in the next 3 years. 
3. COE – Currently, it is hovering around $80,000 (Cat A) and $100,000 (Cat B) as of August 2022, and it’ll last you for a good ten years if you are buying a brand new car. 
4. Additional Registration Fee (ARF) – Paid when you register a vehicle, and currently, a rebate of 45% (capped at $20,000) is possible. Usually >50% of your car’s Open Market Value for cars under 10 years old after offsetting with the PARF rebate that you receive when the car is eventually deregistered.
5. Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES) rebate – Subtract $10,000 to $20,000 from your costs if you qualify for this.
6. Excise duty – It has been adjusted and will range from $100 to $350 ($350 will start from 2023 onwards).
7. Charging fees – It can range from $300 to $400 per month (if need about 2 to 3 times of full charging sessions per week).

So if we do the math, the calculation will be as follow:

$250,000 (COE included) + $6,200 + $800 + $192,241 - $10,000 + $100 + $300- $20,000= $419,641

The total cost to own an EV will be about $419,641, assuming that we subtract the lowest rebate you’ll get from the VES scheme and the maximum rebate you’ll get for the ARF (using the price of the Honda car as of August 2022 as an example).

Let’s say you’re currently owning a regular car that requires a 95-octane petrol pump at $2.94 / litre and you’re thinking of switching to an EV, so you’re comparing the running costs as well. Below is an estimate of the running costs of both an electric car and petrol-powered car.

To be exact, a typical electric car battery is about 60 kWh, so that’s $33 for a full charge. The charges by electric car charging stations are usually by the kWh or by the hour. However, it can get tricky to estimate the costs since the time it takes to charge depends on the car model and speed of the charger — a full charge can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours, and the frequency of your required charging depends on your vehicle’s “charge range”, i.e. how many km your vehicle can be driven on a full charge.

If you’re unsure of how to do this, here’s an example to illustrate. Here’s our round-up of the 4 EV insurance options for you to think about before picking your preferred EV insurance plan. Assuming that you’re a 26-year-old male who is single, has less than 2 years of driving experience, has made no claims, has a no-claim discount of 0%, and is considering getting an Income plan for either one of the below 4 EVs.

You may realise that as you compare across these 4 EVs, those EVs with a more premium make will carry a higher price tag for their insurance premiums too. So if you’re planning to get an Audi e-tron or Tesla Model 3, you’ll need to set aside a lot more for car insurance as well.

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