Singapore Customs pulled out all the stops to smoothen the way for National University of Singapore’s (NUS) first eco-car to compete in the prestigious Shell Eco-Marathon Europe held in France in May 2008.
The proud young developers of the stylish NUS-ECO1 that emerged 15th in an international competition to crown the world’s most fuel-efficient car.
NUS-ECO1 goes down in history for being Singapore’s first green car to take part in the European inter-varsity competition to design and build the world’s most fuel-efficient vehicle with the fewest emissions.
NUS’ ingenious invention can travel about 100 km on 1 litre of Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) fuel and reach a top speed of 45 km/hr. GTL fuel is a synthetic liquid fuel derived from natural gas that burns cleaner than conventional fuel and reduces carbon monoxide emissions by up to 91%.
The six engineering students behind NUS-ECO1 pit themselves against 39 teams from 15 countries to emerge 15th in the urban concept car category.
“We are quite happy as this is the first year we participated in the category and competed against many good teams from countries with a strong automotive manufacturing industry,
such as Germany, Sweden and France,” said team supervisor NUS Associate Professor Lu Wen Feng.
Saving a whopping $30K++
The eco-car manufactured by NUS would have been subjected to tax at 20% ad-valorem as it is dutiable. A manufacturing licence fee of $30,000 would also be required under the Customs Act.
On 4 April 2008, NUS approached Singapore Customs to request for a licence to manufacture one eco-car per year for participating in the Shell Eco-Marathon Europe, as well as exemption from customs duties for the manufacture of the cars.
Mr Esmond Teo, Trade Officer from the Procedures and Processing Branch, was happy to lend a hand. He put up a case to exempt the duties and licence fee for such cars built purely for academic reasons.
“The eco-car built by NUS is not for commercial use but to expose their students to international events which promote engineering and innovation excellence,” he noted.
Professor Lu said, “Mr Teo was very, very helpful, patient and prompt. He called me many times to update me on our application status.”
The happy outcome of Mr Teo’s trade facilitation efforts was significant. Professor Lu said, “We would not have had the funds to send the car to France for the competition if the application was unsuccessful. We really appreciate the Singapore Customs office for granting our application.”
As NUS aims to participate in the competition every year, Singapore Customs has granted waiver of duty and licence fees for one eco-car built by NUS per year.
Go-ahead for student projects
Singapore Customs waived the manufacturing licence
fee and customs duties for this race car dubbed
"The Centennial 4" to participate in the inter-varsity Formula Society of Automotive Engineers competition held in
the USA.
This was not the first time that Singapore Customs permitted a double waiver to support academic endeavours. In July 2004, a similar approval was granted for NUS to participate in the International Formula Society of Automotive Engineers competition — an annual inter-varsity car race held in Michigan, USA.
In its best showing ever, the NUS team and their race car, The Centennial 4, was ranked 22nd out of 121 teams to emerge within the top 20% of the contestants who hailed from worldwide in the 2008 competition.
