November 5, 2024
SINGAPORE – The Republic is more than a quarter of the way to achieving its goal of installing 60,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging points across the island by 2030, with more than 15,300 charging stations now available islandwide.
The latest tally shows that as at September, about 1,500 more charging points have been installed than the number reported in August.
According to figures in a new EV guide published online by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Nov 4, about 7,100 of the 15,300 charging points available today are publicly accessible, with the rest located in private premises such as condominiums.
While the majority of public chargers will be slow chargers intended for overnight use, LTA plans for some of these public chargers to be fast-charging.
These fast chargers can juice up a typical EV battery from 20 per cent to 80 per cent in an hour, compared with several hours for a regular slow charger.
On Nov 4, the first of a new batch of public fast chargers was unveiled at the basement carpark of Woodlands Civic Centre.
By March 2025, another eight Housing Board-owned commercial carparks will also get public fast chargers, said EV-Electric Charging – the LTA subsidiary responsible for EV charging deployment.
The new public fast chargers are being deployed under a tender awarded in June to two charging point operators – ComfortDelGro-owned CDG Engie and Keppel-owned Volt Singapore.
Speaking on Nov 4 at the launch of the new chargers in Woodlands, Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor said the June tender is the first phase of a larger plan to install 120 fast chargers at about 60 carparks in HDB commercial buildings, town and neighbourhood centres, and industrial premises owned by JTC Corporation.
She said the aim is to make it as convenient as possible for high-mileage EV drivers to access these chargers, should they need a midday top-up. These high-mileage drivers include cabbies, private-hire drivers and light goods vehicle drivers.
Dr Khor, who is also Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment, noted that in the first nine months of 2024, one in three new cars registered here was an EV.
The adoption rate was even higher for light goods vehicles, with EVs making up about 44 per cent of new registrations.
Asked if there was scope to quicken the pace of EV charger installations here, Dr Khor said: “We will have to monitor demand and balance, ensuring there is convenience and accessibility, as well as reasonable utilisation of these chargers.”
With EV adoption picking up, Dr Khor said another goal is for EV owners to pick up good charging habits.
This is why LTA developed the new EV guide, which contains guidelines on what constitutes good charging etiquette. Dr Khor said the guidelines were crafted using feedback from EV drivers, carpark owners and charging point operators.
“We want to encourage people to have good charging etiquette before there is a significant increase in EVs and, therefore, demand for EV chargers. So the hogging of chargers, for instance, is one of the issues we need to address.”
Asked if the Government has any plans to implement these etiquette guidelines at the policy level, Dr Khor said the authorities will monitor the situation.
For now, the Government will leave it to charging operators to decide whether to implement an additional levy on EV owners who do not move their vehicles after charging is finished, if needed at specific locations, she added.