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Where hundreds of electric buses are charged and sent out for service
At Gali Batu bus depot, an operator keeps pace as charging replaces refuelling and data plays a bigger role, in step with Singapore’s push to shift its entire public bus fleet to cleaner energy by 2040
SMRT operates 217 electric buses, parked and charged at the five-storey Gali Batu bus depot. The depot serves 30 routes through Bukit Panjang and Choa Chu Kang interchanges.
PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
Kintan Andanari, Brand Newsroom
Electric buses have no exhaust pipes, no physical side mirrors, and three doors instead of two – vastly different from the buses that Jonathan Teoh grew up with.
“We started with non-airconditioned buses, which had fabric seats and two steps before you (enter the aisle),” the 38-year-old says, tracing the evolution of the public bus from the early models to today’s electric ones.
Electric buses are becoming more common as Singapore’s public transport fleet gradually goes green.
The shift promises cleaner air for people and an easier drive for bus captains – and one that Teoh is keenly excited about.
It is a transformation that Teoh, as deputy head of Bus Engineering and Support at SMRT Buses, has helped shape over 14 years. He joined SMRT Automotive Services, the company’s bus and taxi maintenance arm, in 2012 as a fresh graduate. He moved to SMRT Buses in 2016.
As deputy head of Bus Engineering and Support at SMRT Buses, Jonathan Teoh, 38, is part of the team working on the company’s transition to electric buses – from charging routines to maintenance procedures.
PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
The electric transition has meant rethinking how a bus depot operates, including when and how to charge the buses, he explains. But the goal stays the same: “Making sure the ride is as uneventful as possible.”
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) aims to have the entire public bus fleet, now at about 6,000, run on cleaner energy like hybrid and electric power by 2040, with half going electric by 2030.
Under Singapore’s bus contracting model, LTA owns public buses, depots and interchanges, and collects fares, while transport operators like SMRT are paid a fixed fee over a fixed period of time to run designated routes.
Running electric
It starts with understanding how far the electric buses can go. A diesel bus runs up to 450km on a full tank – about 20 hours of driving – while a fully charged electric bus covers 250km to 280km, explains Vincent Gay, 54, SMRT Buses’ deputy managing director. Those equipped with smaller battery capacity can run up to 170km.
The range figures exclude a 20 per cent charge buffer throughout service.
Gali Batu bus depot’s Charging Station Management System manages which of the 217 electric buses get charged and by how much.
PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
SMRT operates 217 electric buses out of the Gali Batu bus depot, serving 30 routes through Bukit Panjang and Choa Chu Kang interchanges. The five‑storey depot opened in October 2025 after relocating from the now-defunct Kranji bus depot.
It is one of three SMRT bus depots running a combined fleet of about 1,200 buses, comprising electric, hybrid and diesel, with the other two covering 46 routes to interchanges in Jurong West and Woodlands.
“When a (diesel) bus came back (to a depot), we filled the tank and knew it’d last about a day (of driving). Now (the considerations include): Which bus charges first? How much to charge? These are the new planning parameters,” says Gay, who has been with the company since 2013.
For instance, a bus returning to Gali Batu bus depot after an evening shift may not charge immediately when plugged into one of its 240 chargers.
Chief bus captain Tan Lee Kun, 47, plugs a bus into one of the 240 electric chargers at the Gali Batu bus depot, as bus captains do at the end of each evening shift.
PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
The depot’s Charging Station Management System manages which buses charge and by how much, says Teoh.
Charging typically takes place during off-peak hours to take advantage of off-peak wholesale electricity rates, which fluctuate every half-hour.
Servicing electric
Electric bus maintenance requires fewer parts replacements but closer monitoring, Teoh says.
Without an internal combustion engine, monthly preventive maintenance of electric buses focuses on visual checks and analysing data from the Condition Monitoring System (CMS). It tracks real-time battery cell temperatures and voltage fluctuations and triggers early warnings so buses can be withdrawn before a critical thermal event.
Such early detection is vital to prevent lithium-ion batteries entering thermal runaway – a state where the heat generated exceeds the heat dissipated – which can cause a fire, Teoh says.
SMRT installed CMS in November 2024 on 17 electric buses – 10 in service since December 2020 and seven since August 2021 – and is now seeking LTA’s approval to extend it to the remaining 200, which were fully deployed for passenger service in April 2026.
Electrical vehicles (EVs) accounted for about 1.8 per cent of the 226 vehicle fires in 2025, according to the Singapore Civil Defence Force statistics. EVs make up about 6.8 per cent of Singapore’s vehicle population as at end 2025, according to the same report.
SMRT Buses’ deputy head of Bus Engineering and Support Jonathan Teoh (right) inspects the undercarriage of an electric bus with automotive technical officer Tan Kim Kee, 33.
PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
All technicians at the Gali Batu bus depot are trained in-house against a manufacturer’s checklist. A designated group has completed the National Electric Vehicle Safety Specialist certification, which Teoh says is sufficient to meet the maintenance requirements for the electric buses at the bus depot.
The certification was launched in 2022 by LTA in partnership with SkillsFuture Singapore.
Manufacturers and LTA also guide technicians on handling high-voltage components like battery packs.
Using high-voltage gloves, technicians must decommission the high-voltage system by removing the Manual Service Disconnect device, which cuts power to it, Teoh says.
They then wait five minutes before using a voltmeter to confirm zero voltage at the battery terminals – only then can maintenance begin. A voltmeter measures the voltage difference between two points in an electrical circuit.
Without an internal combustion engine, monthly preventive maintenance of electric buses focuses on visual checks and analysing data from the Condition Monitoring System, which tracks real-time battery temperatures and voltage fluctuations.
PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
The bigger test comes when warranties expire. While major repairs fall to the manufacturers for now, the preparation for such maintenance has already begun.
SMRT has exchanged visits with public transport operator Shenzhen Eastern Bus to learn about maintenance, operations, safety and infrastructure.
Shenzhen, the third-largest city in China behind Beijing and Shanghai, operates one of the world’s largest fully electric public bus fleets, according to the World Bank. Shenzhen Eastern Bus switched to a fully electric fleet in 2017 and now operates over 5,000 electric buses.
“It was a very deep exchange. With nine years of experience, they were more than kind enough to share their pain points, the issues they faced when operating these vehicles, and the pitfalls to watch out for,” Teoh says.
“The operating environment is different, but you can still understand and localise the information to Singapore’s requirements.”
SMRT Buses is also part of the International Bus Benchmarking Group, consisting of operators from 15 countries, whose collective experience helped guide the SMRT Buses team transition to electric, says Gay.
For Teoh, the knowledge exchange shows on the buses now plying Singapore’s roads. Seeing them in service, and knowing his input helped improve how they are run, make the work meaningful, he says.
To be part of this shift is exciting, he says. “But we’re always reminded that there’s a high responsibility to make sure that people are properly trained and processes are set in place.”
This article was produced in partnership with SMRT.
