SINGAPORE – New electric vehicle (EV) charging points are slated to be installed in one-third of Housing Board carparks by the end of 2023, as the shift towards greener transport gathers speed.
Transport Minister S. Iswaran said on Wednesday that some 2,000 EV charging points are set to be installed in more than 700 HDB carparks by the end of the year.
He was speaking to the media at an event to mark the roll-out of the first charging points under a large-scale tender awarded in November 2022 to deploy some 12,000 chargers at nearly 2,000 HDB carparks by 2025.
To set the ball rolling, there are three chargers located at Level 3A of the multi-storey carpark at Block 80D Telok Blangah Street 31, and another three at Block 212A Boon Lay Place.
Other EV chargers are expected to be ready at various HDB carparks in the coming months.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the pace of EV adoption is picking up, with electric cars accounting for 11.8 per cent of all new car registrations in 2022.
There are more than 6,500 electric cars on the roads, and nearly 10,000 EVs after including other vehicle classes.
Mr Iswaran said: “We are on track to deploying at least 12,000 charging points by 2025 to help meet the charging needs of Singapore’s growing EV population.”
Singapore is on a mission to electrify its vehicles and phase out the more polluting ones.
The registration of new diesel cars and taxis will cease from 2025.
The goal is to have all vehicles to run on cleaner energy by 2040.
Till now, the shortage of EV chargers has been a sticking point.
The chargers at the HDB carparks are rated 7.4kW.
The ones in Telok Blangah charge 50.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, while those in Boon Lay are priced at 52 cents per kWh.
Charging up a vehicle like the MG5, which is used as a taxi by Strides Mobility, takes about 8.5 hours.
The widening network of EV chargers will make life easier for the owners of such vehicles.
Currently, for example, the EV charging points closest to Telok Blangah are in commercial buildings and petrol stations in the Alexandra Road area, according to the EV charging map on LTA’s MyTransport app.
For EV drivers in the Boon Lay area, the nearest alternatives are at petrol stations in Bukit Batok. These are fast EV chargers operated by EV Mobility, Shell and SP Group.
The chargers in Telok Blangah are operated by ChargEco, a joint venture by SMRT subsidiary Strides Mobility and YTL PowerSeraya.
The charging points in Boon Lay are operated by Charge+.
Singapore aims to have more than 60,000 EV charging points by 2030, of which 40,000 are in public carparks and 20,000 in private premises.
The LTA is currently running a “call for solution” on its Land Transport Innovation Portal till March 13 for ways to install EV chargers in HDB carparks without hefty infrastructure upgrades.
This is especially pertinent in locations where the switchrooms supplying power to carparks do not have excess capacity.
This call is open to companies, research institutes or institutes of higher learning, and shortlisted solutions will be funded by the LTA, subject to criteria set by the agency.
SP Group said its first EV charger in an HDB estate under the large-scale tender will be ready in March, starting in Tampines.
The utilities provider has been offering EV charging since 2018 in commercial and private residential buildings.
Usage at these locations seems to be evenly spread throughout the day, it said.
Charge+ said it expects to roll out more than 100 charging points at about 40 HDB carparks by April in the western and central regions.
Meanwhile, LTA has set up a new company called EV-Electric Charging (EVe) to oversee the roll-out of the EV chargers, which includes coordinating the upgrading of supporting electrical infrastructure needed for EV charging.
LTA group director (special duties) Derek Tan, who has extensive experience in managing HDB branches and carparks from his stint as HDB group director of housing management, has been appointed EVe’s chief executive.
The company’s board is chaired by Mr Khoo Teng Chye, who is director of National University of Singapore Cities and practice professor at the College of Design and Engineering.
It also comprises experts from the private and public sectors.
