Detroit's rescue could also be S'pore's windfall
By Zhen Ming
IF the US government bails out the car makers, this could be good news for Singapore.
The US government will set conditions which car companies were reluctant to follow before.
President-elect Barack Obama plans to put one million 150-mpg (about 64 kpl), plug-in hybrids on US roads within six years and give American consumers a US$7,000 ($10,700) tax credit to buy these fuel-efficient cars.
This retooling of Detroit impacts Singapore.
Dr Michael Quah Cheng-Guan, a Harvard-trained American fellow at our Energy Studies Institute, said there would be a trickle-down effect that would help our economy.
'For instance, the need to develop and improve components of these electric systems would spin off R&D benefits to Singapore's strength in semiconductors, power control devices, IT command and control programs, and even to the new nano-materials, which will serve the high power needs for switch gear and associated peripheral components.'
But it will be a tough ride for US car makers, said Dr Quah, and it remains to be seen if the US can get over 'its obsession with what Singapore's (Ambassador-at-large) Prof Tommy Koh calls the 'Socially Unacceptable Vehicles (SUVs)'.
Said Dr Quah: 'The car lobby remains very strong simply because American car companies (and their suppliers) constitute a major industry in the US, where many jobs, including those in my home state of Michigan, are on the line.'
Last but not least, the US - as a country with 5 per cent of the world's population using 25 per cent of its energy resources - must admit that there are huge opportunities in energy-efficiency gains.
Source: The New Paper, Fri 05 Dec 2008
By Zhen Ming
IF the US government bails out the car makers, this could be good news for Singapore.
The US government will set conditions which car companies were reluctant to follow before.
President-elect Barack Obama plans to put one million 150-mpg (about 64 kpl), plug-in hybrids on US roads within six years and give American consumers a US$7,000 ($10,700) tax credit to buy these fuel-efficient cars.
This retooling of Detroit impacts Singapore.
Dr Michael Quah Cheng-Guan, a Harvard-trained American fellow at our Energy Studies Institute, said there would be a trickle-down effect that would help our economy.
'For instance, the need to develop and improve components of these electric systems would spin off R&D benefits to Singapore's strength in semiconductors, power control devices, IT command and control programs, and even to the new nano-materials, which will serve the high power needs for switch gear and associated peripheral components.'
But it will be a tough ride for US car makers, said Dr Quah, and it remains to be seen if the US can get over 'its obsession with what Singapore's (Ambassador-at-large) Prof Tommy Koh calls the 'Socially Unacceptable Vehicles (SUVs)'.
Said Dr Quah: 'The car lobby remains very strong simply because American car companies (and their suppliers) constitute a major industry in the US, where many jobs, including those in my home state of Michigan, are on the line.'
Last but not least, the US - as a country with 5 per cent of the world's population using 25 per cent of its energy resources - must admit that there are huge opportunities in energy-efficiency gains.
Source: The New Paper, Fri 05 Dec 2008
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