The Government aims to deploy 60,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging points across Singapore by 2030, and install EV charging points in all Housing Development Board (HDB) carparks located in eight towns by 2025, said Minister for Transport Ong Ye Kung on Thursday (4 Mar).
Speaking in Parliament earlier today, Mr Ong noted that 40,000 charging points will be deployed in public carparks, while the remaining 20,000 will be at private premises.
He revealed the Government is targeting to have at least eight EV-ready towns by 2025, with all HDB carparks in eight towns – namely Ang Mo Kio, Bedok, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong West, Punggol, Queenstown, Sembawang and Tengah – be fitted with EV charging points.
These towns were selected as they are well spread out across Singapore, and consist of a high concentration of car parks with the existing electrical capacity to support charging point deployment.
“Assuming one-third of cars are EVs by 2030, this translates into an EV-to-charging point ratio of about 5.1. This ratio is better than many public estimates of the optimum ratio, which ranges from 5:1 to 10:1,” said Mr Ong.
While he acknowledged that having high-powered fast charging points is more preferred, Mr Ong stressed the key to unlocking more charging facilities is “to not insist” on high-powered fast chargers, as this would require a major upgrade to almost all existing power substations and grid infrastructure in Singapore.
“It would be costly, time-consuming, stall the development and expansion of charging infrastructure, and severely impede the adoption of EVs.
“We can move much faster in making charging points available if we accept that for most users, instead of high-powered ‘fast’ charging, ‘slow’ or ‘overnight’ charging is alright,” he added.
Noting that drivers are used to quick visits to the petrol station, Mr Ong believes that a mindset shift would be required for them to start using slow chargers.
“After all, we are used to patiently charging all our electronic devices whether they are smartphones, smart watches or laptops, while we sleep, or while we are in office doing work. It will be the same for EVs,” he noted.
An average EV with a range of around 400-500km would require a full charge about once every five days.
Mr Ong noted that charging points will need to be shared, with different drivers charging on different days and different times, especially those in public car parks.
“That way, we will be able to minimise electrical infrastructure upgrades, tap on the spare electrical capacity in all our public car parks, and install charging points as quickly as possible,” he said.
For non-landed private residences such as condominiums, the Government will introduce an EV Common Charger Grant to catalyse implementation. Condominiums will be able to apply for the grant to defray part of the cost of installing a charger, subject to a quantum cap.
“This will be made available to the first 2,000 chargers installed from July 2021,” said the Minister, adding that this is part of the S$30 million allocation announced in Budget 2021, with more details to come from the Land Transport Authority (LTA).