Encouraging Interest In Electric Vehicle Ownership, Singapore Builds Thousands Of Chargers In Condos And Apartments
JAKARTA - In order to increase the interest of its citizens to have electric vehicles, to achieve the target of vehicles with cleaner energy by 2040, Singapore plans to build tens of thousands of charging stations.
One of them is through a certain electric vehicle charging grant scheme that will be available for condominiums and apartments, who wish to install electric vehicle charging.
"The General Electric Vehicle Charger Grant will co-fund the cost of installing 2,000 chargers in the homes to encourage early adoption of electric vehicles," Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) said, citing CNA July 19.
The Singapore government itself has announced a target to deploy 60,000 EV charging points across Singapore by 2030, of which 40,000 will be in public parking lots and 20,000 will be in private ones.
Charger owners, either EV charging operators or residential owners, can apply for a grant to cover three upfront costs, namely the charging system, licensed electrician fees and cabling and installation costs (limited to S$1,000).
The grant will co-fund half of these costs, with an overall cap of S$4,000 for each charger. However, there are conditions for obtaining this grant.
Only chargers with intelligent functions that enable it to monitor and react, to energy consumption data through charge level adjustments will be co-funded.
"This is to facilitate energy planning and more efficient electricity consumption," said LTA.
"To catalyze the initial deployment of chargers in as many locations as possible, the grant will only fund the installation of chargers for up to 1 percent of the residential parking lot in each residence," the LTA continued.
The General Electric Vehicle Charger Grant will be available for private development covering housing units, except for landed properties, shop houses, hotels, hostels, serviced apartments and workers' dormitories.
The plan is that the grant will be open to submission starting July 29 and available until December 31, 2023 or until 2,000 chargers have been approved for co-financing, whichever comes first.
Separately, Sembcorp Industries launched an electric vehicle charging center for trucks in Tuas, last Monday 19 July. It is planned that this charging center will be opened for public use by industrial vehicles next year.
The opening of the Sembcorp Industries hub follows the deployment of a fleet of electric trucks this month to collect waste and recycle in the Clementi-Bukit Merah and Punggol City sectors. The Tuas Hub will serve as a central filling station for trucks, managed by SembWaste, the waste management arm of Sembcorp, citing the Straits Times.
The hub is partially powered by solar energy and can charge up to 18 industrial electric vehicles at once, via a four-hour fast charge cycle.
Transport Minister S. Iswaran, who attended the launch of the hub at Sembcorp's depot in Tuas, said the company's efforts were significant in pushing for more environmentally friendly vehicles.
He noted that although heavy vehicles make up less than a tenth of Singapore's vehicle population, they account for nearly half of carbon emissions.
"Emission reductions from electrification are greater for heavy vehicles than light vehicles such as cars," said Iswaran.
He added that such electrification of commercial fleet vehicles would also help catalyze the growth of the electric vehicle charging network.
Singapore announced its vision in its 2020 Budget to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles, to be replaced by running all vehicles on cleaner energy by 2040.
Since then, the Government has announced various measures to encourage the use of more environmentally friendly vehicles, including the Incentive for the Early Adoption of Electric Vehicles.