SINGAPORE - A 160-year-old town gas supplier has moved into the electric vehicle charging business.
City Energy, previously City Gas, has teamed up with Malaysian start-up EV Connection to offer a cross-border network of chargers from Johor all the way to Penang.
Called Go, the chargers can be accessed through a common app, which users can link to any credit card for payments. It is the first such service available to Singapore and Malaysian EV owners. Shell's Recharge, for instance, requires two separate apps.
In Singapore, Go chargers will roll out at a dozen condominiums over the next four to five years, with stations in Parc Botannia in Sengkang starting this month and those in Olloi in Marine Parade next month.
There are currently 20 locations in Malaysia - mostly along the North-South Highway - which are already live, and EV Connection managing director Lee Yuen How said 50 more will be added by the year end.
The additional chargers, he said, will allow drivers to go towards the east coast of Malaysia.
The rates are RM1.20 (38 Singapore cents) per minute for 50kW DC chargers and RM2 to RM3 per hour for 7kW AC chargers.
In Singapore, the rates are 51 cents per kWh for 22kW AC chargers, and 55 cents per kWh for 50kW DC chargers.
There are no subscription fees.
City Energy chief executive Perry Ong said the company will focus on private and mixed developments given the "high proportionality of car owners in these developments".
Mr Ong would not forecast how many chargers City Energy will be building but given the growing interest in EVs and the number of new condo developments, he is "very optimistic" about the future.
He said the main proposition for condo developers is that they will "incur zero capital expenditure and zero operating expenditure" to have Go chargers at their premises, as "all costs will be borne by us".
Last April (2021), Shell and Porsche Asia-Pacific announced they will build 12 high-speed DC chargers along the North-South Highway to allow EV owners to drive up to Penang and back.
Four stations were to be ready by the second half of last year, and two more by the first half of this year.
These new chargers will be integrated with 18 Reserve + Shell Recharge charge points in Malaysia and will complement 175kW chargers available at all Porsche Centres in Malaysia.
A Shell spokesman said however, that once across the Causeway, drivers will have to use a separate app.
