SINGAPORE - An initiative to get commercial vehicle owners to replace their older, more pollutive vehicles with cleaner ones has been extended again, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on Monday (June 17).

The Early Turnover Scheme (ETS), which was due to end at the end of next month, has been extended to July 31, 2020.

Under the scheme, vehicle owners pay a discounted prevailing quota premium - referring to the average of certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums over the prior three months - instead of having to bid for a new COE when replacing their older vehicles with cleaner ones.

The extension aims to give owners of commercial diesel-powered vehicles, which conform to the older Euro 2 and Euro emissions standards, more time to replace their vehicles with Euro 6 models, the LTA and NEA said.

Such an upgrade would cut tailpipe emissions of particulate matter (PM) and nitrous oxide (NOx) by more than 90 per cent and 60 per cent respectively.

The agencies said that while Euro 2 and Euro 3 Cat C diesel vehicles account for about 30 per cent of the commercial diesel vehicle population - which currently stands at 135,963 - they contribute almost half of the population's PM and NOx emissions.

However, the two agencies said the ETS had "yielded positive results", noting that as of May, more than 44,000 vehicles had been replaced with greener alternatives under the scheme.

It is the third time the ETS has been extended since it was started in 2013.

While newer diesel vehicles are cleaner than older ones, diesel vehicles are still major contributors of PM and NOx pollution in Singapore.

"Switching to a non-diesel vehicle can reduce PM and NOx emissions more," the agencies said.

"Dealers are encouraged to introduce cleaner commercial vehicle models to the market for the industry's adoption during the extension.

"Future turnover schemes, if any, will favour the turnover to cleaner alternatives."