Last month on June 8, Transport Minister S Iswaran said in his keynote address at sustainability conference Ecosperity Week that electric cars in Singapore made up 8.4 per cent of all new car registrations in the first five months of this year.
This is more than twice the rate in all of 2021, but compared to the whole of 2020 — which is just two years ago — the 8.4 per cent represents a 20-fold jump.
According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA)’s latest report, 16,567 new cars were registered in the first half of 2022. Out of this figure, 1,488 electric vehicles (EVs) were registered during this same period, making up nine per cent of the total new car registrations.
These make up encouraging figures, fuelled by more incentives this year, as Singapore seeks to phase out internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 2040.
What is being done to boost EV adoption?
The government has already set to boost Singapore’s charging network — 2,000 public housing car parks equipped with EV chargers by 2025, and a network of 60,000 chargers by 2030.
“In short, we want to take the anxiety out of range,” said Mr Iswaran last month.
He noted that industry partners have also been increasing efforts to increase the adoption of EVs.
They include Surbana Jurong, which is working with SP Group to build an EV charging hub at its new global headquarters in the Jurong Innovation District. When completed, it will house 250 EV charging lots, making it the largest charging hub in Southeast Asia.
The minister also spoke about efforts to decarbonise Singapore’s heavy vehicle population, as part of a wider push towards green transport.
Aside from a target to introduce 3,000 electric public buses — half the total fleet — by 2030, Mr Iswaran also gave examples of industry players, such as logistics companies, using tax incentives to convert their vehicles to cleaner energy models.
“Fleet operators such as DHL, Bollore and Kuehne+Nagel, are at various stages of piloting and deploying the use of EVs in Singapore for the delivery of goods,” he said.
Earlier this year, Mr Iswaran also announced a target to slash land transport emissions — which currently account for 15 per cent of Singapore’s total emissions — by 80 per cent by the middle of the century from their peak in 2016.
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