Electric-vehicle car sharing programme officially rolls out with 80 cars

Singapore's first large-scale electric-vehicle car sharing programme officially rolled out on Tuesday, with 80 hatchbacks and 32 charging stations offering some 120 charging points available for public use.

It is the first step of a plan to put 1,000 of such zero-emission cars on the roads for public use, along with 2,000 charging points, by 2020 - putting it on track to be the second largest electric vehicle car sharing programme in the world.

The initiative, which is also supported by the Land Transport Authority and Economic Development Board, was launched by Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan during a ceremony held at the Singapore Flyer.

The charging infrastructure and green cars are being supplied by BlueSG, a subsidiary of the French conglomerate, the Bollore Group, which has a similar electric-vehicle sharing scheme in Paris, with more than 4,000 cars, and currently the world's largest.

Marie Bollore, managing director of the Bollore Group's Blue Solutions, said the company is "committed to make Singapore the second largest electric vehicle car sharing service worldwide after Paris".

Ms Bollore said that about 2,000 users have signed up to rent the BlueSG cars, since registrations opened on Dec 4.

Users can choose from two subscription plans: One charges a monthly subscription of S$15, and 33 Singapore cents for each minute of use. The other has no monthly fee, but will charge 50 Singapore cents a minute.

They can use a BlueSG app to book a car and reserve a parking lot. Cars have to be picked up from and returned to a BlueSG charging station.

By the end of this year, BlueSG targets to have a total of 110 cars and 42 charging stations offering 165 charging points.

The charging stations are spread across housing estates, the city and also found in one-north business park and the Singapore Science Park.

BlueSG's managing director Franck Vitte announced on Tuesday that it is now in talks with its first private landowner, City Developments Limited, to place charging stations at properties including Republic Plaza and Central Mall.

While the BlueSG programme was originally targeted to launch in August, it has been delayed due to the authorisation processes required to construct the charging stations, which includes trenching and laying of power cables.