The charge for the electric car to be part of the motoring landscape here has started.
Take Mr Eu Pui Sun, managing director of Senoko Energy Supply, who shares just such a car – a Mitsubishi iMiEV – with his colleagues.
The company bought it for $90,000 in June as part of a government project to gauge the viability of these cars here.
‘We wanted to support the green technology,’ said Mr Eu.
The $20 million, three-year trial will evaluate factors such as the distance such cars can achieve here and the extent of support infrastructure needed.
Companies and organisations here can lease or buy up to 95 such cars in total from distributors and manufacturers without paying vehicular taxes or bidding for certificates of entitlement.
At least 14 participants have signed up for the cars powered by battery packs.
While the cars technically do not emit carbon, some may be created during the process of charging up the batteries, but it is far less than what petrol cars emit.
Experts told The Straits Times that such cars are cheaper to maintain because they have fewer parts.
Singapore’s compact size is also a good fit for the cars, which have a limited range of 90km to 160km on a full charge, they added.
A cross-country drive from Joo Koon MRT station to Changi Airport is about 45km.
Still, the road ahead for the electric car is not without its bumps.
Motorists, for instance, gripe about the cars’ exorbitant price – at least twice the cost of similar petrol cars (if these electric cars are not part of the government project). They also ask whether there will be adequate infrastructure, such as charging points.
As of now, there are nine charging stations islandwide run by German technology firm Bosch.
Mr Eu said he would personally not buy an electric car without some government subsidy.
Motorists also said the car could give less mileage than projected, as power would be sapped by the stop-go nature of driving here, given the many traffic lights, and by the use of air-conditioning.
Then, there is the need to juice up the vehicle more often.
‘It takes me 10 minutes to top up a full tank of petrol. And I need to do that only once a week,’ said businessman Janus Wang, 29. ‘Why would I get a vehicle that might take me six hours, two or three times a week, to do the same thing?’
But experts pointed out that this issue is less likely to drive Singaporeans round the bend, because of the country’s size.
The average driver here travels 55km a day, well within the range of the electric car, they noted.
They said it is more important to make sure drivers are able to charge the cars when they get home at the end of the day.
‘This will eliminate the problem of the car’s range and having to set aside time to charge the vehicle,’ said Mr Patrick Osswald, 26, a battery researcher at the TUM-Create Centre for Electromobility.
Currently, green drivers who live in landed homes can hire electricians to install a special socket to charge the cars.
But those who do not live in landed properties have to seek permission from the Housing Board or their condominium management.
For now, they also have to pay the cost of installation – about $80 to $120.
Scientists said there are bigger challenges. For example, firefighters have to be trained to recognise electric cars so they do not try to put out electrical fires with water. This could cause electric shocks and make the fires bigger.
Last month in the United States, the National Fire Protection Association started a series of seminars countrywide for this reason.
Scientists also highlighted another danger – that of rescuers cutting the cars with metal devices, potentially triggering electric shocks.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force said rescuers usually cut through car doors and roofs – where there are no wires – to free people.
But rubber-insulated gloves would be issued as a precaution.
Rescuers will also be trained to recognise electric cars, disconnect voltage cables and fuses to prevent shocks, and use dry powder extinguishers for fires, it added.
Other scenarios are being prepared for.
Bosch said it may work on a system to prevent electrical failure in case too many drivers try to charge their cars at the same time on the same part of the grid.
Many research projects are ongoing worldwide – and here – to address the cars’ range and concerns about safety.
These include projects for a high-performance battery that can be charged up to 10 times faster than existing ones and a mobile app that allows petrol-car drivers to simulate piloting electric cars.
Transport consultant Tham Chen Munn is among the experts who plug the rise of the electric car as inevitable.
‘It makes more sense in the long run. It’s more expensive at the start but you save so much money on maintenance and fuel that it evens out,’ he said.
Dr Tan Yen Kheng, a research fellow at the Energy Research Institute at Nanyang Technological University, said Singapore’s political stability also gives electric cars here a higher chance of getting government backing for the long haul.
The multi-agency task force overseeing the trial said it will look at the results before deciding how to proceed.
Mr Eu is cautiously optimistic about the road ahead for the car here. ‘Of course, green is good but you have to make it convenient and cheap too.’
