SINGAPORE: As the Certificate of Entitlement for his conventional Nissan car neared its expiry date, Mr Adrian Oh decided it was time to put his lingering idea of switching to an electric vehicle into action.
For the first five months of this year, about one-third of new cars registered here were electric ones - compared to almost one in five in 2023, and slightly above one in 10 in 2022. And despite the pick-up in interest here, electric models comprised just 1.8 per cent of the entire car population - or 11,941 of 651,302 - in 2023.
First, to stimulate the growth of the electric car population such that it outpaces that of EV chargers would only serve to make the perennial pain point of inaccessibility of charging more acute, they noted.More importantly, it is important not to lose sight of Singapore’s vision of a car-lite society, which calls for zero growth in its car population.
Other reasons include affordability to power EVs in the long run compared to petrol , availability of government subsidies and greater ease and comfort in driving . Drawn to it by the good experience he felt when testing out his friend’s Tesla, he also found other benefits in driving the electric vehicle.
Major retailer Cycle & Carriage Singapore said that the profile of its EV customers"varies" depending on the range of brands and models the firm offers. This effectively means that the vast majority of Singaporeans who drive an EV would have to rely on common charging stations - an experience that can vary depending on each driver’s circumstances and usage needs.
The number of charging stations increased to over 3,600 by the end of 2022 when Singapore had 8,978 EVs.There are no publicly available figures on the number of charging stations then, although in May this year, Minister for Transport Chee Hong Tat said in a parliamentary reply that there were more than 6,200 EV chargers around the island and Singapore is on track to deploy EV chargers at all HDB car parks by end-2025.
When her family bought a BYD electric car earlier this year, she did have concerns over charger hogging issues, Ms Ng admitted. For Mr Lai, the Tesla driver, the lack of access to a charger is also a pain point for him, as his condominium development does not have any charger installed.