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Freeze in COE growth leaves room for push towards shared mobility

Trinity Chua Published on Mon, Dec 18, 2017 / 8:15 AM GMT+8

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SINGAPORE (Dec 18): If you have been hankering to drive an electric car, you can now rent one from BlueSG. The subsidiary of French conglomerate Bolloré Group has rolled out a car-sharing programme with a fleet of 80 electric vehicles. BlueSG intends to have 1,000 EVs and 2,000 charging points across the republic by 2020. That will put 90% of the population within 300m of a charging station.

“We see a shift in Singapore from ownership to usage [of vehicles],” Franck Vitte, managing director of BlueSG, tells The Edge Singapore on the sidelines of the launch on Dec 12. “[There is an] increasing attractiveness [in] shared [mobility services such as] bicycle-sharing and car-sharing in the market.” The Bolloré Group has already pulled off successful car-sharing programmes in other countries. In France, its fleet of 4,000 Bluecars has reduced the number of private vehicles on the road by 22,500.

BlueSG may well receive a boost from the government push to cap the growth in private car ownership. In February, the vehicle growth rate will be cut to zero from the existing 0.25%.