Tighter controls ahead for foreign commercial vehicles

All here can soon look forward to some cleaner air.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has announced that come 1 April 2026, foreign commercial diesel vehicles found to exceed 50HSU* will be turned back.

Foreign motorcycles registered in their home country before 1 July 2003 will no longer be allowed on Singapore's roads from 1 July 2028

Currently, commercial diesel vehicles both local and foreign tested and found to exceed 40 HSU will net their owners a composition fine, while foreign commercial diesel vehicles found with smoke emissions of 60HSU or more will be turned back at our land checkpoints and not allowed to enter Singapore.

The NEA states that this tightened threshold of 50HSU is consistent with the emission standards under the ASEAN Framework Agreement on the Facilitation of Goods in Transit. It will additionally issue advisories to foreign commercial diesel vehicles entering Singapore in the six months prior to the implementation of the new standard to remind foreign motorists of the new threshold and its implementation date.

Come 1 July 2028, foreign-registered motorcycles registered in their home country before 1 July 2003 will also no longer be allowed on Singapore's roads. Foreign motorcyclists entering Singapore are required to use motorcycles registered on or after 1 July 2003 that also comply with Singapore's in-use emission standards.

This new move will bring regulations for foreign motorcycles in line with regulations for local motorcycles. The stat board announced in April 2018 that local motorcycles registered before 1 July 2003 will not be allowed on Singapore's roads from 1 July 2028. This change was done as older motorcycles are generally more pollutive than motorcycles complying with the newer Euro emissions standards.

*Hartridge Smoke Units (HSU) is a metric for smoke emissions from diesel vehicles.