SINGAPORE - A public tender for the installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging points at some 200 public carparks across Singapore has drawn 19 bidders, reflecting a growing interest among businesses to cash in on the government's EV push.
Among those which submitted bids for the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) tender, which closed on March 31, were familiar names such as transport group ComfortDelGro, oil giant Shell, utility group SP Mobility and government-linked ST Engineering, according to tender documents.
The tender called for bidders to build, operate and maintain more than 600 charging points for 12 years, starting as early as Aug 31 this year.
The successful bidder will also have to carry out enforcement actions against non-EVs parked in the designated charging lots, as well as EVs which occupy the lots but are not charging.
The network - which will be part of 60,000 points the government has committed to by 2030 - is likely to consist of 7kW chargers in Housing Board carparks, and at least 22kW chargers in other public carparks operated by agencies such as the URA, National Parks Board and JTC.
Tender prices were based on concession fee per kWh of energy payable to the authorities, and ranged mostly from 3 cents (by Tron Energy Technology) to 80 cents (from Accesstech Engineering).
ComfortDelGro, which teamed up with French energy group Engie, made a bid of 62 cents per kW.
In a statement, ComfortDelGro chief executive Yang Ban Seng said: "We are keenly aware that we must step up our commitment to green technology and processes. Sustainability has become a key pillar of our foundation and one that we intend to build on going forward."
Engie South-east Asia chief executive Thomas Baudlot said: "As an end-to-end provider of low-carbon solutions with a demonstrated track record of having operated 200,000 EV chargers globally, Engie is in prime position to supply affordable green energy to future EV drivers."
Beyond the URA tender, ComfortDelGro said the pair will explore and deploy clean energy solutions together. It added that the joint venture is in line with the group's recent announcement that it is committing $50 million in clean energy technology and research for the next five years.
Several other companies are plugging in the push to erect EV charging points in the Republic.
They include solar power specialist Sunseap's Charge+, which aims to set up 10,000 points by 2030; and Shell, which aims to have EV chargers at 25 of its refuelling stations here by year-end.
