Staying at The Bus Collective got us thinking – should we reevaluate our relationship with the vehicles that we use daily?

The whole premise of the project was to promote sustainability, and to explore alternate ways to inject new life into old and decommissioned vehicles. But why stop at just repurposing old buses? Isn’t it time the government considered a careful loosening of car modification guidelines so that we can keep the current fleet of vehicles on the road for longer?

The General Singaporean Mindset

Many treat cars as expensive disposable items, with a limited 10 year lifespan. The taxation system also incentivises owners to replace their vehicles at the end of its initial COE cycle.

But many of the cars that have reached the end of their legal lifecycles still have plenty of usable life left in them. And many of these vehicles are scrapped as a result of what can only be described as a legal technicality.

So if we are to continue becoming ever more sustainable and environmentally-friendly, shouldn’t we look at alternatives to sending perfectly usable cars to the crusher?

What Are These ‘Alternatives’?

Global emissions standards have significantly improved over even just the past decade. Zero tailpipe emissions vehicles have also made significant headway into the mainstream. It is not that these decade-old cars are polluting – rather, modern cars are just too efficient and clean.

Instead of getting car buyers to scrap their existing cars and buying new new-energy alternatives, shouldn’t we look at allowing owners to update their powertrains to match modern emissions standards instead?

This would keep road-worthy car bodies on the roads for longer, and there wouldn’t be a need to waste materials and resources to fabricate a new vehicle from scratch. Keep in mind that this is something that even the manufacturers do – platforms can be in continuous production for more than a decade, with the automakers only updating their engine and powertrain options to meet ever more stringent emissions standards.

Safety, Taxation and Legal Repercussions

The aftermarket in larger markets have been doing this for years. Boutique engineering firms in Europe and the USA have been re-engineering existing cars to accept newer powerplant options. An especially popular swap now sees these tuning shops replacing polluting and inefficient classic car motors for electric drive units sourced from accident-damaged Teslas.

So instead of two vehicles sitting in a junkyard waiting to be crushed, you’ve now pieced together a singular, functional vehicle that still has many years of life left in them. But allowing such drastic modifications opens up a whole new can of worms. How can the LTA police these third-party alterations and ensure they are road-worthy? And these swaps often see the cars having not-insignificant increases in power output – what are we going to do about its COE classification as a result?

Well, for starters, we can leave it up to the independent local shops to import these kits and get them certified. Perhaps there should be a scheme that allows reputable engine or motor swap kits to be used for extending a vehicle’s usable lifespan in Singapore. We can perhaps define this as manufacturers that have at least a set number of vehicles completed and on the roads in their country of origin.

Several regions overseas also require any significant vehicular alterations to be cleared with their transport governing bodies, which is something that our governing bodies can perhaps cross reference to in approving which kits could be sold and installed for use on our roads.

In the modification process, these cars should be officially laid up, and then only allowed back on the roads after an inspection. From the day of approval, up till the final day of its original COE, should there be any changes to its COE category, concessions can be made to prorate the necessary changes using data gathered from the very latest round of COE bidding. All the other rebates can then also be corrected accordingly.

These vehicles are then better equipped to be relevant for years to come, and it’d eliminate some concerns about relevancy in a stark, all-electric future. This makes it more appealing to revalidate its COE past its initial 10 year period.

If we are really concerned about the planet, then shouldn’t we start looking at how to better optimise what we currently already have? Relooking at our relationship with the automobile and revitalising ageing vehicles is perhaps a good place to start!

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