Around two decades ago, Singapore pushed for compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative, cleaner fuel source. Unfortunately, with just five CNG stations at the peak, it was not convenient nor enough to support the number of CNG vehicles beyond a critical mass. Just three stations are operating today.
The CNG scheme reached the end of the road in 2018, when the last CNG taxi operated by TransCab – the main CNG user – was scrapped. Data from data.gov.sg as at January last year revealed that there were no fully CNG cars on the road, while only 244 cars were petrol-CNG.
In short, the CNG push fell into the age-old chicken-and-egg conundrum of having a critical mass of fuelling points or CNG vehicles first. As Singapore now pushes big into electric vehicles (EVs), Goh Chee Kiong, CEO of Charge+, does not want history to repeat itself.
The company, which provides charging infrastructure, is a subsidiary of clean energy provider Sunseap. Goh believes “the writing is on the wall” that EVs will become the dominant mode of transport in the future, and says that Charge+ is making a big bet to capture this market.
Charge+, under Goh, has announced ambitious plans to be a major player with a target of installing 10,000 EV charging points all over Singapore by 2030, with 4,000 in condominiums.
To put this number into perspective, that is one-sixth of the total Singapore-wide target set by the government, which aims to deploy 60,000 charging points at public carparks and private premises by 2030.
In Feburary, Charge+ signed an MOU with OCBC to accelerate the adoption of EVs and charging infrastructure. To this end, OCBC will encourage its property developer and property owner customers to install charging points at their premises. It will also implement digital payment solutions for the charging service, and look into the financing for the infrastructure.
The bank has also launched an enhanced EV loan, which boasts a lower 1.68% flat fixed interest rate, compared to 2% or more for standard vehicles. Customers who take up the loan will also get up to a year’s free charging at all Charge+ stations.
Goh, citing conversations with landlords such as condominium management, claims that there is interest among residents to buy EVs. As such, he sees the need to invest in EV charging infrastructure ahead of demand. He observes that regardless of whether the driver lives in an HDB flat, a private condominium or a landed property, unless they have an EV charger at their doorstep, they will be very hesitant to buy an EV.
“We are prepared to invest, no problem, we are prepared to provide charging as a service, at zero cost and with zero hassle, to the condominiums,” claims Goh.
Charging as a service
Charge+’s business model is what Goh terms as “charging as a service”, which means that Charge+ will install, operate and maintain the EV charging infrastructure. The company will then collect the charging fees from the EV drivers without the involvement of the landlords and condo management.
“Likewise for HDB residents, if Charge+ is providing such a service in a public housing area, the EV drivers will be paying Charge+ directly for the charging service,” he explains.
This will assure condo owners, as there is zero cost and zero risk to them. As for the prospective EV owners, this will be a reassurance that they have an EV charger at their disposal to charge their cars when they go home.
However, most EV chargers take about four to eight hours to fully charge an EV battery. In contrast, filling up a full tank of petrol takes 10 to 15 minutes. EV users are walking a line between worrying about running out of juice while on the road, and spending necessary but unwilling time tethered to charging stations.
Yes, there are so-called “fast chargers” that can top up the power in 30 minutes or so, but that is still slower than sticking the nozzle into the tank. Goh hopes for a “paradigm shift” in the way people think and the way they go about refuelling their vehicles – electric or otherwise.
As more people convert to EVs, Goh expects the charging to take place overnight while the users sleep – “just like charging your phone” – and not at the end of the working day along the commute home, as is often the case for petrol vehicles.
He believes that with overnight charging, customers will save time, as they never need to stop off at a petrol station. “The paradigm shift actually is for Singaporeans to embrace overnight charging in their residential premises, right within the HDB [estates], the condominiums, within the homes.”
All this is, of course, predicated on the premise that EV charging stations are at the doorstep of residential premises.
According to Goh, normal chargers for overnight charging should be more common versus so-called fast chargers, which are meant for occasional top-ups when the battery is about to run out in the middle of the day following extensive driving. Normal chargers, says Goh, are capable of making sure that EVs plugged in overnight would be fully charged up for a new day, regardless of the size of the battery.
Fast chargers, says Goh, are more expensive than slow chargers, and take up a lot of the buildings’ electrical supply. But with slow chargers, Goh estimates 10 to 20 of them can be installed within most residential premises without an issue.
The emissions buck
For cheerleaders of EV, their key argument is that this is a cleaner power source. However, others might point out that moving to EVs from conventional internal combustion engine vehicles simply means switching the source of emissions from petrol to the national grid, from which power needs to be drawn.
Sunseap’s president and co-founder Lawrence Wu does not think so. According to him, the burning of natural gas to produce energy emits about 188 grams of carbon per kWh (kilowatt-hour).
“For current EVs, each kWh allows the driver to travel roughly 6-7 km per kWh, so in effect, each kilometre travelled for an EV emits about 2.8 grams of carbon per kilometre. Contrast that with a typical ICE (internal combustion engine), which emits about 80 grams per kilometre travelled. So that’s roughly 30 times more carbon per kilometre,” Wu says.
He acknowledges that EVs are not yet carbon-free, but says they already result in a huge reduction in carbon emissions. In the future, Charge+ and Sunseap may explore synergies to ensure a completely zero-emissions model. For now, the power that Charge+ draws will not necessarily come solely from Sunseap, which provides solar energy.
According to Wu, Sunseap generates energy from solar power, and then exports it to the national grid. He adds that the current model for Charge+ is that the EV chargers will be connected to the national grid, and it is up to Sunseap to decide how much of Charge+’s energy comes from solar power or commercial sources. Goh also reveals that there is some interest in this area. Clients have asked him for solutions that allow for a completely clean value chain.
Therefore, Charge+ is also looking at whether it can bundle integrated energy solutions for such clients, such as having a battery between the charger and EV to store power, so as to charge the vehicle at night.
“That integrated approach is something that Sunseap can do, and something that Sunseap can harness across the broader group, because it is the retailer for solar energy, and it has already gone into stationary battery systems,” Goh explains.
Recently, Sunseap has received $50 million in funding from ABC World and Temasek, as well as a Series D funding of $100 million from Thailand- based energy company Banpu.
These funds will be used for solar projects in Singapore and other parts of Asia. Wu says that apart from Singapore, the company is mainly focused on four markets, namely Taiwan, China, Japan and Vietnam.
Wu highlights that among the markets that Sunseap is in, there is a “steady growth in renewables” in the developed markets like Taiwan and Japan. As for China, there is a huge potential for growth as the country is “power hungry” due to the fast pace of economic growth, he adds.
The company has projects in the Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific regions, including a 168 MWp (MegaWatt-peak) solar farm in Vietnam, a 140 MWp solar farm in India, and a 10 MWp solar farm in Cambodia.
Back at home, besides selling power to the national grid, Sunseap has notably also signed an agreement with Apple to provide 100% of its local energy requirements from renewable sources.
Education
For Goh, the most pertinent challenge Singapore faces in the adoption of EVs is education. He feels that landlords and condo managers need to be educated so that they will be more receptive to EV-charging on their premises and the various business models. According to Goh, landlords can take “quite long” to go through the whole process of evaluating, weighing the pros and cons, including the cost benefits and risks, before giving the go-ahead to install chargers on their premises.
He admits that this “is new to Singapore”, but says if Charge+ can make “charging as a service” an accepted practice and business model, adoption would accelerate across establishments.
“If the first 20 condos are doing the same way, with a certain degree of confidence in the business model, in the structure, then hopefully that can be replicated very easily across the remaining houses and condos in Singapore,” says Goh.
Consumers also need to be educated on EVs, and dispel some fallacies like only Tesla cars can only use their chargers, or that certain brands are incompatible with certain chargers and they would have to go around searching for a suitable charger.
Goh claims that all EVs in Singapore will be able to be used with any charging point, regardless of brand, as Singapore has adopted the European CCS2 charging standard for all EVs and chargers. The only exception is the Nissan Leaf, which uses the Japanese CHAdeMo system for fast charging, but it will be able to use slow charging at any charging station here.
Moving forward, Charge+ is eyeing bigger markets in the region to expand to. “Our aspiration is to go beyond Singapore. Singapore is just the beachhead for us … and the intent for Charge+ is really to go out to serve the region,” says Goh.
