SP Group to double new electric vehicle charging points to 1,000; inks deal with HDT

SP Group is speeding up the installation of electric vehicle charging points, saying on Thursday that it will roll out 1,000 such points by 2020 - double the number it announced in June.

A quarter of those new charging points, or 250, will be high-powered direct current chargers. These 50kw chargers will be able to fully charge a car in as little as 30 minutes - compared with up to eight hours for normal chargers.

SP Group said there will also be some "extra-high-powered chargers" of up to 350kw, which will be able to support more powerful electric models with longer driving ranges, and be able to charge up a passenger car in as quickly as 10 minutes. It added that it plans to extend charging services to a wider range of vehicles, including buses and trucks.

SP Group head of strategic development Goh Chee Kiong told The Straits Times that the lack of charging infrastructure was "a huge bottleneck" to electric vehicle adoption, and that is why "we're making this huge investment... so that Singaporeans can have access to electric mobility as soon as possible".

SP Group, however, would not reveal the investment sum, citing "competitive reasons".

Hyundai agent Komoco - which was the first to offer a mass market electric car here - has said that the cost of a normal charger is around S$5,000, and the cost of a fast one is around S$65,000.

But industry watchers expect prices to be lower if more are installed.

SP Group said the first chargers - a mix of 30 normal and high-powered ones - will be operational by the end of this year.

All the charging points will be located at "convenient locations nationwide, such as shopping malls, residential areas, business parks and industrial sites, as well as close to coffee shops and food outlets". Each location will have "two to six" charging points.

Mr Goh said talks were ongoing with government agencies to introduce them to Housing Board carparks.

SP Group was not ready to reveal charging prices, but said they would be higher than household electricity tariffs because of the capital investment involved in setting up the public chargers. The vast majority of these points would be accessible to the public, Mr Goh noted.

Asked whether Singapore's power grid would be able to cope with the proliferation of electric vehicles, Mr Goh said: "In the near term, there will be no impact on the power grid. But in the mid to longer term, as we scale up the number of charging points... that consideration becomes serious."

Studies elsewhere have shown that even if the overall electric vehicle population remains relatively small, a high concentration in any one neighbourhood can cause electrical surges and put a strain on the grid.

Meanwhile, SP Group has tied up with electric taxi firm HDT to "support... Singapore's largest electric taxi operator, on all its vehicle charging needs for the next 10 years".

HDT plans to grow its fleet to 800 electric taxis by 2022.

In August, SP Group had a similar tie-up with ride-hailing company Grab, which will bring in 200 battery-powered cars from next year.