Singapore firm aims to have 10,000 electric vehicle charging points islandwide by 2030

SINGAPORE: A local firm aims to install 10,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging points across Singapore over the next decade, making it the single largest EV charging provider in the country. 

Charge+ announced on Tuesday (Sep 29) that it plans to install its charging points in public housing estates and private developments such as condominiums, as well as in commercial and industrial buildings. 

This comes after Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced in February that Singapore intends to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles by 2040.

Mr Heng also said at the time that the authorities aim to have 28,000 public EV charging points available by 2030 with help from the private sector, up from about 1,600 currently.

MOBILE APP FOR CHARGERS

A subsidiary of solar energy solutions provider Sunseap, Charge+ said it is now developing its own proprietary, ultra-slim charger, which it said can be installed in all existing carparks. 

This will allow for more chargers to be installed, allowing for more EV users to be served, said Charge+, citing the “limited localised power supply” at many carparks here. 

Once available, these charging stations - which Charge+ said will be the slimmest commercial EV charger in the world - would feature two charging points, each with a 7.4 kilowatt (kW) power rating. 

This would allow a typical EV, with a depleted battery, to be fully charged in about three to four hours.

A cloud-based management system will remotely control and monitor all Charge+ EV chargers, while a mobile app will allow drivers to locate available chargers, start charging sessions and make payment. 

In Singapore, promotional products and marketing services supplier Axxel Marketing, engineering company Ebenezer Group and self-storage operator StorHub have already signed up as clients, the company said in a release.

Singapore will serve as a launch market from which Charge+ intends to expand into other cities in Southeast Asia and beyond, it said. 

Charge+ said it will leverage the existing “deep technical and commercial prowess” of Sunseap - which has solar projects across 4,000 buildings in Singapore - allowing the solar energy provider to diversify its clean energy business portfolio.

“Charge+ will build on Sunseap’s vision of making clean energy affordable for everyone. Its roll-out plan, the largest to-date for Singapore’s EV sector, will help spur the adoption of electric vehicles in the country,” said Sunseap chief executive officer Frank Phuan. 

INCREASE IN NUMBER OF FULLY-ELECTRIC CARS

The number of charging points has been expanding in recent years, in tandem with an increase in the number of EVs. 

Dutch oil giant Shell has EV charging points at 10 of its petrol stations across the island, while energy provider SP Group aims to have 1,000 charging points islandwide by the end of this year. 

And as of August, electric car sharing service BlueSG has 345 charging stations with 1,371 charging points islandwide, about 20 per cent of which are available for privately-owned EVs. 

Figures from the Land Transport Authority show that as of August, there are 1,180 fully-electric cars registered in Singapore, up from just 12, four years ago. 

A roadmap developed by the Nanyang Technological University's Energy Research Institute in 2016 suggested that converting 50 per cent of Singapore's vehicle population to EVs could cut vehicular pollution here by up to 30 per cent. 

For more information please click here for the full article by Zhaki Abdullah-CNA.
Source: CNA