Nationwide Electric Car Sharing Program to Start Mid-2017

A fleet of 125 electric cars are expected to hit the road as early as mid-2017. This is part of the Electric Vehicle (EV) Car-sharing Programme, which is a joint project of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Economic Development Board (EDB)

Among the first areas where the programme will take effect are the towns of Ang Mo Kio, Jurong East, and Punggol, where there will be an expected 50 EV stations and 250 charging points installed.

On June 30, Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan officially signed BlueSG, a subsidiary of the French Bollore Group, to operate the electric car fleet under the programme.

The electric fleet is expected to grow to 1,000 cars by 2020. By that time, there will also be 2,000 charging points spread across Singapore's neighborhoods, the Central Business District and key industrial areas. At the same time, there will also be 500 BlueSG stations, 400 of which will be located in residential areas.

"Blue SG will not only bring a significant contribution to the quality of the environment, it will also introduce a new way of commuting in Singapore, open to everyone, extremely easy to use and affordable," said Bollore Group Vice-President Cedric Bollore.

The group currently operates Autolib, the world's largest electric car-sharing programme which is located in Paris, France. With a fleet of 4,000 cars, Autolib has 130,000 regular users. Aside from Autolib, the Bollore Group also has electric car operations in Torino, Italy and Indianapolis, United States

The Bollore Group was chosen out of 13 participants in a Request of Information exercise late 2014. Acoording to Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan, the group was selected for the quality of its proposal and strong track record.

The actual costs of implementing the programme were not revealed to the public, but it will be co-funded by the Government.

Compared to other car-sharing options, BlueSG offers more convenience because it will allow users to return the EV at their destinations instead of where the car was picked up. This is also more suitable for the electric cars as well, since they have shorter range.

Although 20 percent of the 2,000 charging points will be available for public use, the government plans on eventually taking over all the charging points. To make sure all electric vehicles on the road can use any of the charging points, Singapore will adopt the European Type 2 standard as the national charging standard.

Blue SG will be a part of the world's first Open Innovation Platform, which involves large scale vehicle fleets that can help both local and foreign companies and research organizations to learn more and develop different technologies aimed towards better transportation.

Furthermore, BlueSG will set up a Global Innovation Centre, which focuses on research and development in transportation and energy management solutions. This programme is expected to create about 250 jobs during its first five years. It's Asia-Pacific headquarters will also be based in the country to help oversee its own electrical mobility business for the region.

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