Innovations needed for electric vehicle sector to move ahead

WHEN the Singapore government embarks on Phase 2 of the electric vehicle (EV) test-bed in 2016, we will see more EVs on our roads. Spanning 10 years, Phase 2 will see 1,000 EVs deployed for car-sharing purposes, up from the 89 EVs that were deployed to corporate and government agencies between 2011 and 2013 during Phase 1.

While the initial purchase price of an EV can be two or three times that of a comparable car running on petrol, the cost of recharging an EV (assuming that residential electricity tariffs are paid) is only a quarter that of the cost of refuelling a petrol car for the same distance driven. But if we factor in the high costs of building charging infrastructure - ie, the installation of charging stations throughout the city - the cost of running an EV is high.

Participants in Phase 1 of the EV test-bed paid a contracted fee of S$180 for unlimited charging. This is not much cheaper than the cost of petrol, which worked out to about S$220 a month for a typical 1.6-litre Japanese sedan driven about 50 kilometres per day (the national average mileage for private cars in Singapore). The EVs in Phase 1 of the test-bed travelled 46 kilometres daily on average.