Come 2040, vehicles using purely internal combustion engines will be phased out in favour of cleaner, quieter electric vehicles (EVs).
The plan was announced during the 2020 Budget and, since then, there has been incentives to encourage the early adoption of EVs.
Still, the perks will count for nought in the absence of an affordable and convenient national charging infrastructure.
Many consumers' decision to buy an EV rests almost entirely on easy access to public charging points.
In Singapore where most live in high-rise buildings, personal home-based charging points are not feasible.
With this in mind, the Government plans to roll out 60,000 charging points by 2030, with 40,000 in public carparks and the remaining 20,000 in private premises.
Nine years is a long wait, but early adopters need not fret.
There is a small but growing network of charging points run by various operators. Established players include BlueSG, SP Group, Shell and Greenlots (a member of the Shell Group), while Charge+ by Sunseap and Caltex are set to join the fray.
Most operators price their charging service in terms of dollar per kilowatt hour ($/kWh).
BlueSG adopts a time-based charging price model while Greenlots uses a combination of both pricing models.
For easy comparison, The Straits Times has converted the prices into a dollar per kilowatt-hour format. Do note that in real-world charging, there is often a 10 per cent loss when power from an AC charger is converted to DC by the vehicle's on-board charger.
EV charging point operators
BLUESG: This electric car-sharing operator offers 3.7kW AC chargers. While the charging speed is slow, the charging points are well distributed.
CALTEX: Its four refuelling stations offer 50kW DC fast charging, in collaboration with SP Group. More will be rolled out.
CHARGE+: Part of solar power provider Sunseap, Charge+ plans to build 10,000 chargers by 2030. It now has a few dozen points offering 7.4kW AC and 60kW DC chargers.
GREENLOTS: A first mover in this space, Greenlots is now owned by Shell. It has a wide spread of locations, with 3.7kW, 7.4kW and 22kW AC chargers. A couple of them are even free.
SHELL: The first oil company to offer electric vehicle charging points at its stations, Shell has the facility at 18 stations. It aims to grow the number to 25 by the end of this year. They offer 43kW AC and 50kW DC charging.
SP GROUP: It had ambitions to build 1,000 charging points by this year, but plans were delayed partly by the pandemic. The company has around 200 charging points, which still makes it one of the biggest operators here. It offers mostly 43kW AC and 50kW DC chargers, but has a few AC points with power ranging from 7.4kW to 22kW.
