Singapore is set to experience its first electric car-sharing service by the end of 2017. A total of 1,000 rechargeable cars are targeted to be released in phases starting December.
The Land Transportation Authority (LTA) and the Economic Development Board (EDB) of Singapore in June signed a deal with BlueSG, a subsidiary of French transportation company Bollore, to develop an electric car-sharing service. BlueSG on Wednesday, September 27 announced that 30 charging stations and 80 cars will be deployed for its initial release in December.
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The partnership targets to deliver 1,000 electric cars in stages. The company says they are planning to make a total of 500 charging stations furnished with 2,000 charging points, of which 400 will be made available to the public.
The original plan was to release 125 rechargeable cars and 250 charging points first in towns like Juron East, Punggol and Ang Mo Kio by mid-2017. However, regulatory setbacks prevented the company from pursuing the original plan.
"In Singapore, it is a bit complicated because it's not like the other cities - we have a lot of different agencies to build the stations," says Marie Bollore, the managing director of Blue Solutions.
LTA chief technology officer Lam Wee Shann says the electric car-sharing is expected to provide a good public transportation alternative to Singaporeans and hopefully diminish their reliance on private vehicles.
The first 30 charging stations, which has 120 charging points in total, will be positioned in parking lots. There will be 18 stations in public housing estates, 10 in the city and city fringes and two within commercial and industrial estates.
"We are on a good trajectory to build a world-class electric vehicle infrastructure both on the development and innovation front, where we aim to create 250 jobs at the end of our first five years," says Bollore.
The Bollore Group also runs similar rechargeable car-sharing services in major cities around the world, including Paris, London and Los Angeles. Singapore is aimed to be the second largest electric car-sharing location after Paris.
