Charge of the electric vehicle brigade in Singapore

The number of public charging points for Electric Vehicles (EVs) was growing even before the announcement last week by utilities provider SP Group that it planned to roll out an islandwide network of such points.

Two places in Tampines, for example, were among the latest to install them earlier this month. The integrated community and lifestyle centre, Our Tampines Hub (OTH), introduced seven charging stations in its car park as part of its commitment to sustainability initiatives.

"As demand for such services is still nascent, OTH is offering EV charging on a complimentary basis. OTH will monitor usage levels before making further decisions," the centre's spokesman said.

Furniture retailer Ikea also introduced two charging stations at its Tampines store, with four car park spaces reserved for two hours of free charging. Another two charging stations would be made available should there be sufficient demand, said an Ikea spokesman.

The company has also said it would introduce priority parking spaces for electric cars - albeit without chargers - at its Alexandra Road location, which has charging points for electric motorcycles. OTH and Ikea did not disclose how frequently these charging stations are used.

SP Group's announcement last Wednesday that it planned to build 500 charging points islandwide by 2020 is the most expansive outlined this year. In February, electricity retailer Red Dot Power said it intended to install, in partnership with Finnish charging technology specialist PlugIT, at least 50 charging stations by the end of next year.

Charging infrastructure provider Greenlots has 16 publicly-accessible charging stations and has already said it plans to increase this to 50 by the end of the year.

Electric car-sharing operator BlueSG told The Sunday Times that 'depending on market demand', it may open some of its charging stations for the use of private vehicles by the end of this year. The company's charging stations - spread over more than 50 locations islandwide - can only be used by BlueSG cars now.

But BlueSG had earlier pledged that 20 percent of the 2,000 charging points it expects to have by 2020 would be made available to private cars too.

Land Transport Authority figures show that sales of electric vehicles have been rising, with the number of fully-electric and plug-in hybrid cars growing from 137 two years ago to 592 as of April. Unlike petrol-powered vehicles, electric cars are considered clean as they do not emit carbon dioxide or other pollutants.

But the jury is still out on how environmentally-friendly such vehicles are, said Mr. Kelvin Lim, a Director of the Electric Vehicle Association of Asia Pacific. "It depends on what runs the power generation plants," he said.

In China - where more than 700,000 electric vehicles were sold last year or half of the number worldwide - coal continues to meet about 60 percent of the country's energy needs. "That's dirty power," said Mr. Lim, who is also the Chief Executive of energy storage start-up New Resources Technology. What is needed is a complete ecosystem, connecting clean sources of energy to electric vehicles, he said.