Organisation:
The Straits Times
Resource Link:
2021, Link
My Key Takeaways
As part of Singapore’s Green Plan 2030 to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles (ICE) by 2040, electric vehicles (“EV”) will play an increasing important role in helping the country to shift to cleaner mobility modes.
For companies who are new to Singapore’s EV ecosystem, you’ll find here a useful collection of educational articles and statistics by “The Straits Times” newspaper to speed up your understanding of the sector.
It includes information on the cost of owning an EV in Singapore, an overview of public charging options, and an analysis of whether EVs are better for the environment.
Notable articles to help companies with market access into Singapore’s EV scene:
Electrifying Drive: Nailing the costs of going green
This article includes a chart comparing the total cost of owning different car models commonly found in Singapore (e.g. Mazda, Toyota, Volvo, Lexus etc).
Are electric vehicles greener?
The article mentions the Wall Street Journal’s commissioned study by University of Toronto which showed that an EV’s carbon footprint is almost half that of ICEs at the 10-year/165,000km mark.
This is despite EVs having a higher footprint than ICE at production stage because lithium batteries are resource-intensive. The study does not take into account battery degradation and recycling though.
There’s a need to avoid battery swapping schemes as they are resource intensive, requiring up to two batteries per vehicle on the road.
Where Electric Vehicles can plug into Singapore and how much it costs
Singapore prefers to take the route of increasing public charging points, planning to have 60,000 public charging points by 2030.
Average EV charging rates would need to come down as they are still double the household electricity rate.
The article provides a quick overview of different EV charging points operators like BlueSG, SP Group, Shell and Greenlots (a member of the Shell Group), Charge+ by Sunseap and Caltex.
You’ll get info on their pricing model, charging cost, charger types and strengths/weaknesses.
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As part of the city state’s plans to keep the city sustainable and liveable, and to encourage greater use of public transport, the growth in number of privately owned cars has been zero since 2017.
EVs are also a short to mid-term energy transition plan for Singapore as the country eyes hydrogen as a long term engine to power its economy in the future.
Singapore is still at the start of its electric mobility journey so do watch the space closely for new entrants, charging tech and business models.
Hope this collection of articles would help your company to identify the right partners and business models to plug into the EV space!
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About Zhilin SIM
Having worked and lived in Singapore, the Nordics, China, Spain, UK, I’m now based in Paris.
I’m fluent in English, French and Mandarin, and I’m learning Arabic because it’s a beautiful and fascinating language.
My team creates and supports one-many initiatives connecting Corporate and Startup ecosystems in Europe to business and innovation opportunities in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
I’m passionate about horticulture, watercolour, startups/tech as well as French cuisine, Peranakan kueh techniques and other global cuisines.
Feel free to connect with me if you think my network in Europe and Asia could be of benefit to your business and innovation activities.
