All HDB car parks to have 3 EV charging points by 2025; Cat A COE to include more EV models

FROM 2025, all Housing Board car parks will have at least 3 charging points for electric vehicles (EV), while more EV models will qualify for Category A Certificates of Entitlement (COE) in a nationwide push to significantly reduce land transport emissions by mid-century, Transport Minister S Iswaran said on Tuesday (Mar 8).

The Ministry of Transport (MOT) will install these charging points in nearly 2,000 HDB car parks over the next 3-4 years, which means every HDB town will be "EV-Ready" by 2025, Iswaran said in Parliament during the Joint Segment on the Singapore Green Plan 2030.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will launch a large-scale tender for charging points at HDB car parks in the first half of this year.

This comes as the ministry plans to reduce land transport emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, from its peak in 2016 at 7.7 million tonnes, he said.

Land transport currently accounts for 15 per cent of national emissions and is the third largest source of greenhouse gases in Singapore.

"It is an ambitious goal that will require policy moves, new technologies and behavioural shifts across our land transport system. Along with the decarbonisation of the power grid, electrification of vehicles is a key initiative that will have a material impact," Iswaran said.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

Since 2020, there has been an 18-fold increase in new electric car registrations, from 100 to 1,800 in 2021, accounting for almost 4 per cent of all new car registrations.

However, 80 per cent of electric car users live in private residences, including condominiums and private apartments, currently, Iswaran said.

He noted that more than 10 developments have used the EV Common Charger Grant, introduced last year to incentivise non-landed private residences to install chargers in their car parks.

Still, range anxiety remains a commonly cited impediment to EV ownership, said Iswaran, even if the average driver in Singapore may need to fully charge an EV once every 5-7 days given that most have a range of at least 300 kilometres.

To take the anxiety out of range, chargers must be widely available, he said.

For a start, there will be at least 3 charging points per car park, with more where there is demand and adequate electrical capacity, he said.

The charging points will mostly provide low-powered, overnight charging and would meet the needs of car owners, while minimising the load on the electrical grid.

At the same time, the National EV Centre at LTA will take the lead to upgrade supporting electrical infrastructure - to expand consumer switchrooms and substations to support increasing use of the residential charging network.

Working with other government agencies such as the Energy Market Authority and HDB, the minister said upgrades will start over the next few years and continue well into the 2030s.

To fund these infrastructure upgrades, LTA will be issuing green bonds, and the bond repayment obligations will be met through a tariff on EV charging operators and users, which will be phased in at a later date, Iswaran said.

MOT will also increase the Maximum Power Output (MPO) threshold for Category A COE for EVs from 97 kW to 110 kW from the next COE quarter in May.

"We introduced the criterion of 97 kW in 2013, in addition to an engine capacity of 1,600 cc or less, for Category A cars. That was to address the market trend then, when many luxury petrol cars with smaller but turbo-charged engines could draw on Category A COEs," he said. Introducing the 97 kW MPO threshold shifted these turbo-charged luxury cars into Category B, he added.

However, mass-market electric cars in international markets tend to have an MPO of 110 kW or lower, while more mass-market EV models with an MPO above 97 kW have been introduced locally in the last year, he said.

The change will double the number of models that fall within Category A from 10 to 20.

Meanwhile, the government is also working on strengthening regulations surrounding EV adoption and safety.

"As they are still relatively nascent, we will focus on safety regulations, while monitoring industry and technology developments to assess their applicability to our overall charging network," said Iswaran.

LTA is working with the industry on revisions to Technical Reference 25 (TR25) on Singapore's national EV charging standard, which are necessary to ensure a safe and reliable EV charging ecosystem, he said.

This will preserve public safety while easing compliance and maintenance obligations for owners of EV chargers, he said.

It will also allow for new technologies, such as battery-swapping for electric motorcycles and very high-powered charging of up to 500 kilowatts (kW).

The government will introduce legislation to regulate EV charging, and this will cover the approval and registration of EV chargers and the licensing of EV charging operators.

It will also mandate the provision of charging infrastructure in new buildings and major redevelopments, he said, adding that there will be a public consultation later this year.

Moving to other vehicle segments, the government will extend the statutory lifespan of electric taxis to 10 years, up from the current 8.

"As EV batteries for e-taxis may need to be replaced around the 5-year mark, this extension will enable taxi operators to optimise their investments, and price e-taxi rentals competitively," he said.

He noted that taxi operators have separately announced plans and committed that at least half of Singapore taxis will be electric by 2030.

The government also aims to have half of its public buses be electric by 2030, indicating an almost 50-fold increase from the current 60 electric buses to about 3,000 in 8 years.

To achieve this, bus buys from now till 2030 will primarily be electric, said Iswaran, adding that LTA will replace over 400 diesel buses with electric buses by 2025.

LTA will also call a tender later this month to deploy more solar panels on public transport infrastructure, helping to reduce both emissions and energy costs.

This includes rail and bus depots, the upcoming Integrated Train Testing Centre, covered linkways and pedestrian overhead bridges.

Get the latest updates on Budget 2022 here: bt.sg/budget22