With Certificate of Entitlement (COE) prices now back on an
uptrend, many people may reconsider getting a car.
A growing number of Singaporeans are giving up their cars
altogether, opting to car-share instead.
59-year-old retiree Thong Chee Hong and his wife do not travel as
much as they used to.
So, a day after scrapping his car in August, they joined Honda's
Diracc car sharing scheme.
The couple says they like the convenience of having a car whenever
they need it, without having to deal with cost factors such as road
tax, petrol, car maintenance and repair bills.
"I would generally spend S$500 to S$600 on average per month in
owning a car. However, when I came on this programme, I'm now
spending on average only about S$200 a month, taking into
consideration six to eight times of driving per month," Mr Thong
says.
Users of this system can receive and return the cars at 16 ports,
the majority of which are located within the Central Business
District.
But as the fleet grows, the plan is to have more of these ports at
residential areas.
Mr Thong says he is also swayed by the use of Honda's environment
friendly hybrid cars which run on an electric motor and a petrol
engine.
Hisao Kobayashi, Managing Director, Honda ICVS, says: "Whenever the
number of vehicles gets more, there are congestion problems and
noise problems. We would like to provide other alternatives to our
so-called users. If you use the car a little bit less, why don't
you use car sharing? This car-sharing scheme is complementing mass
transportation like MRT, buses or taxis."
Diracc, which has about 1800 members with a fleet of 72 cars, is
one of four companies in Singapore offering car-sharing
schemes.
The others are City Speed from Comfort Delgro, NTUC Income and
Whizz Car.