NUS running electric vehicle trial [News]

By Royston Sim, The Straits Times, 14 Jan 2012.

The National University of Singapore will launch a trial this year to study whether one-seater electric vehicles can enhance travel around its campuses.

Participants will use the Toyota COMS – a single-seater micro electric vehicle (EV) resembling a golf buggy – to shuttle between the NUS Kent Ridge campus and University Town (NUS UTown).

The year-long study will test the viability of using such vehicles to provide ‘personal mobility on demand’ at NUS.

The trial is led by Professor Chua Kee Chaing, who said it is likely to start by April with a fleet of 10 vehicles – provided free by trial partner Toyota Tsusho (Singapore). Read more

A requiem for their electric dreams … [News]

By Esther Ng, Today, 14 Nov 2011.

Imagine building cars out of a workshop the size of a three-room HDB flat. That was what Mr Clarence Tan, 28, planned to do in 2008, after he had invested S$250,000 to set up The Green Car Company (TGCC). His dream was to manufacture 2,500 two-seater, air-conditioned electric cars a year, starting from last year.

Three years on, TGCC did not make a single car. The project has since been shelved.

Mr Tan, who is now focusing on his existing robotics business, is not the only entrepreneur who had his grand electric vehicle (EV) dreams dashed: The same year that Mr Tan set up TGCC, Mr Lim Kian Wee, then 36, reportedly quit his S$200,000-a-year engineering job, liquidated his investments and took out his retirement savings to start green technology firm Ample. Read more

What drives electric vehicles here? [News]

By Chua Wen Hao and Jonathan Chan, The Business Times, 9 Sep 2011.

Global crude oil prices have risen to record highs over recent months and petrol prices have risen in tandem. Factor in growing concerns over global warming and issues of energy security, and the stage appears set for the electric vehicle (EV) to appear in Singapore.

The benefits of adopting EVs are significant. Maintenance and operating costs of EVs can fall to a third of those of their conventional counterparts, leading to cost savings for customers. On the environmental front, EVs themselves produce no tailpipe emissions, but the gencos (power generation companies) that produce electricity do. Singapore largely relies on natural gas to generate electricity, which is significantly cleaner than gasoline or diesel which are used in conventional vehicles. Read more

Electric car trial charges ahead [News]

By Feng Zengkun, The Straits Times, 25 Aug 2011.

The charge for the electric car to be part of the motoring landscape here has started.

Take Mr Eu Pui Sun, managing director of Senoko Energy Supply, who shares just such a car – a Mitsubishi iMiEV – with his colleagues.

The company bought it for $90,000 in June as part of a government project to gauge the viability of these cars here.

‘We wanted to support the green technology,’ said Mr Eu.

The $20 million, three-year trial will evaluate factors such as the distance such cars can achieve here and the extent of support infrastructure needed.

Companies and organisations here can lease or buy up to 95 such cars in total from distributors and manufacturers without paying vehicular taxes or bidding for certificates of entitlement. Read more

BMW’s electric hope for Singapore: Yes, i Can? [News]

BMW’s new electric vehicle sub-brand – the BMW i – is going where some have failed and many do not dare venture without government support. It is coming here.

The German carmaker is preparing to launch the electric BMW i3 and its hybrid super sportscar sibling (the BMW i8) here in 2013.

‘This is a megacity. Five million people live in Singapore. It has many of the attributes of a major city – congestion is a problem and the environment is something that is increasingly gaining awareness,’ Ian Robertson, a board member at BMW Group, told BT.

The launch of an electric vehicle will have to navigate a unique set of challenges here. To date – not counting Tesla – no other carmaker has brought in electric cars apart from Mitsubishi, although Renault is expected to do so by year-end. Read more

Singapore’s Greenlots Set to Lead in Global Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions

Interest in electric vehicles is gaining momentum around the world and most major car manufacturers are starting to produce electric cars. The increased interest and usage of electric vehicles (EV) would have to be supported by intelligent EV charging networks, and a local company, Greenlots, is set to lead in global EV charging solutions.

About Greenlots

Started in late 2008, Greenlots is a Singapore-based company that designs and delivers hardware and software to enable EV manufacturers and distributors, utilities, municipalities and other businesses to set up their own EV charging network. Greenlots is Asia’s leading provider of charging networks with installations in ten countries, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, Poland, Italy, Austria, UK, Ireland and Thailand. Read more

Electric Vehicle Tests to Start in Mid-2011 [News]

The first batch of 10 Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric cars is likely to be launched in May for the start of a three-year test-bedding project here.

The i-MiEV is a pure electric vehicle (EV) that is part of a $20 million programme to test-bed EVs in Singapore.

‘The test-bed will run for a period of three years, commencing from the middle of this year,’ said Lew Yii Der, the Land Transport Authority’s group director for corporate planning and research.

The LTA is one of the co-leaders of Singapore’s multi-agency EV Taskforce, along with the Energy Market Authority (EMA).

Mr Lew was speaking yesterday at the UK-Singapore Partners in Science Electric Vehicles Symposium 2011. The event, hosted by the British High Commission and the National University of Singapore, brought together specialists from Singapore, the UK and China to discuss the latest EV research and related work in power systems, materials and infrastructure. Read more

Electric Car Firm Pulls Plug on Singapore [News]

American electric car company Tesla Motors is pulling the plug on plans to market its zippy, battery-powered sports cars to the wealthy and environmentally hip here – just six months after setting up an office at Suntec to do just that.

It will pack up next week, without having sold a single car.

The Straits Times understands that the company is pulling out because it failed to secure ‘green’ tax incentives for its cars, making them unviable. Read more

SIEW 2009: Plug-In Singapore 2009

Plug-In Singapore 2009 was held recently as part of the Singapore International Energy Week 2009. The conference and expo is organised by the Cleantech Agency and brings together the market players to discuss key electric vehicle issues.

Opening Speech

During the conference, David Tan, Deputy Chief Executive, Energy Market Authority, gave a speech on the Electrification of Singapore’s Land Transport. He highlighted the current global interest in Electric Vehicles (EVs) and that the use of EVs are expected to pick up from 2015 onwards and become fully commercially viable for the mass market after 2020. Even in an alternative energy disadvantaged country like Singapore, we can reduce up to 4% of our land transport sector’s carbon emissions by 2020 with just a 2% EV penetration rate.

To prepare for such a future, Singapore has embarked on a S$20 million EV test-bedding programme, launched in May to provide an open platform for all auto manufacturers and technology companies to examine the infrastructure requirements of an EV system, to test the performance of EVs under local road conditions and in the tropical environment, and to identify related industry and R&D opportunities.

This test-bed will start next year and run for three years, driven by a multi-agency Taskforce, co-chaired by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and the Land Transport Authority (LTA). As part of the deployment plan for the EV test-bed project, the EV Taskforce has been working with Renault-Nissan, Mitsubishi and other auto manufacturers to secure a supply of EVs for Singapore.

Mitsubishi plans to roll out its i-MiEV model of electric cars next year. So the Taskforce is expecting 50 i-MiEVs to arrive from September 2010, which would cost about S$89,000 – S$99,000 each. Renault-Nissan’s EVs will only be available for commercial sale in 2011. The Taskforce is now looking for interested companies to participate in the test-bed and be an early adopter of EVs in Singapore, under the Transport Technology Innovation and Development Scheme (TIDES), jointly administered by LTA and EDB.

Participants will be required to collate data on the performance of the EV such as driving range between charging, ease of charging, annual mileage and total costs of operation. The data collected will be instrumental in evaluating the costs and benefits and overall feasibility of the future adoption of EVs in
Singapore.

The EV Taskforce will also be rolling out a small network of about 50 EV charging stations. A competitive tender will be launched next year to select an EV infrastructure service provider. The EV charging stations will have to be compatible with the EVs produced by the major auto-manufacturers, and the deployment of the stations will be timed to coincide with the actual take-up of EVs under the test-bed.

In addition, EMA, SPRING Singapore and industry partners will be working on a Technical Reference for the public EV charging systems to set minimum standards for the development of EV charging systems and the safe charging of EVs.

Expo

Here are some photos of the exhibitors’ electric vehicles:

Electric Car and Electric Scooter

Speakers: Mr Lim Kian Wee, Founder and Executive Director, 1AMPLEWORLD Company; Mr Jan Croeni, Managing Director, Zeco Scooters Pte Ltd

Venue: ISEAS Seminar Room, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Singapore 119614

The first presentation is on Global Warming and Financial Fallout of Auto Giants – Two Crises; One Promise?, which discusses the evolution and potential of green vehicles. The second presentation is on A Greener Singapore: Sustainable Mobility, which discusses the challenges and opportunities of shifting to electric vehicles and the necessary infrastructure in Singapore.

Participants will also get to view an electric car and scooter. For registration, email your name, designation and organisation to esibox2@nus.edu.sg by 14 January 2009.