Cars

Do you own a car? Do you want or intend to own one? Have you ever thought of how much would it cost for one to “rent” the roads in Singapore, especially with the never-ending inflation trend?

Parking fees, coupons, ERPs, petrol, etc. All these consumption and maintenance costs will cause a big hole in the wallet. Aside from the money issue, we must not forget about the health of our Mother Earth. The amount of dust, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted are on its hike, with the merciless increase in global car population. Environmental issues such as climate change, global warming, rising sea level are probably the common topics among the people now. As Singaporean, we are equally concerned about this. The issue now is that how can we balance and put both our want-cars and Mother Earth on the same scale.

Hydrogen fueled car is one of the solutions to the problem. Companies such as Honda, BMW, Chevrolet etc, are now supplying hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars, though not in mass production in the recent few years. The Singapore government had seen a value and market in this area and had invested in five BMW Hydrogen 7 Series cars just this year. Preparations had already started a few years back, where BP Singapore participated and will develop and supply hydrogen refueling infrastructure. Although the number of hydrogen refueling stations is very limited, the effort could be seen.

Definitely, I’m proud that Singapore is tagged as one of the greenest cities in Asia. But there is a burning question in my mind as well- Are Singaporeans willing to accept this change? After all, it is a new technology and the cost incur now is definitely going to be high. However, as more efforts in improvement and innovation are put in, reduction and mass production are just a matter of time. Maybe ten years down the road, hydrogen fuelled cars will be a common sight. However, this gives rise to another issue. Will this be sufficient to save the Earth? Or is that a need to transform all our petrol driven cars to hydrogen fuelled cars? Thus, a research can be done to see the attitude of NUS students towards replacing the usage of petrol-driven cars with hydrogen-fueled ones, in the next ten years. NUS students will be used as samples as they will be largely the ones buying cars in the near future and hence, are more relevant to the research.

Hypothesis: Singaporeans are willing to buy or change their cars to hydrogen fueled ones in the next decade, leading to a reduction in greenhouse gases emitted.

Problem Statement: The objective of the study is to find out whether Singaporeans are willing to replace their existing cars with hydrogen fueled ones if the cost to own one is the same as that to own a petrol-fueled car.

Purpose Statement: The objective of the report is to find out the acceptance level of hydrogen fuelled cars among Singaporeans and how it will affect the companies’ marketing strategies before the actual lunching of the cars in Singapore.