Time for Singapore to get electric vehicles up to speed

Singapore must plug in now, after missing chance in the 1990s to be a leader in the field
Christopher Tan, Straits Times 17 May 09;

Singapore could have been a leader in electric vehicle (EV) technology.

Government bodies, learning institutions and private enterprises here have been studying EVs, on and off, since the early 1990s.

A fortnight ago, the sporadic efforts spanning more than a decade came together as a collective endeavour led by the Energy Market Authority. It seeks not only to test the robustness of EVs in a hot, humid environment with stop-start traffic, but will also measure the carbon footprints EVs leave as well as explore how EV owners can sell unused power back to the electricity grid.

The Government is backing the plan - which calls for a three-year trial starting next year - with $20 million. It is the first time that the state is granting direct funding for a vehicle test-bedding project.

If such a serious and concerted effort had been taken in the 1990s, Singapore could have developed an edge in the field by now.

It certainly had the resources to pull it off. And a compact and built-up city state like Singapore is ideal for EVs because you are never too far from civilisation and, thus, an electrical outlet.

The importance of plugging into the world of EVs goes beyond earth-friendlier transportation.

Just as the internal combustion engine changed the way we work and play, and just as it spawned a plethora of industries and created millions of jobs, so will the EV.

The Economic Development Board and National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) recognised this, which was why they had been nudging various parties to embark on the electric journey here for years. Perhaps they should have nudged harder.

Encouraged by a 1993 Green Plan that mapped out directions for Singapore to become a model green city by 2000 - a plan that called for EV charging points to be built in public carparks - several businesses responded.

Home-grown battery maker GP Batteries assembled and ran a fleet of electric cars here.

Golf cart maker OSV Engineering applied for a grant from the NSTB to develop a four-seater electric car.

Another local company, Green Fuel Resources, teamed up with Singapore Polytechnic to convert a 19-seater public bus to run on batteries. The polytechnic itself assembled a working electric car.

A couple of foreign EV manufacturers wanted to set up shop here.

There were individual entrepreneurs who wanted to get on board the electric bandwagon too. One of them was systems engineer John Kua, who left a job at ST Kinetics and sank $250,000 into a project in 2005 to build a cheap and efficient electric motor.

Government-linked ST Kinetics itself had dabbled with EV systems.

Most of these efforts - including the plan for public charging points - failed to get off the ground. The reason cited? EVs were not commercially viable yet.

GP Batteries, however, went on to become a supplier of EV batteries to Europe and the Netherlands. ST Kinetics has developed hybrid electric vehicles, and delivered at least one such vehicle recently - an aircraft tow tractor - to Changi Airport.

And Dr Kua is now a researcher at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. The agency is incidentally involved in the multi- agency EV trial starting next year.

Perhaps it is not too late for Singapore to get up to speed in this fast emerging field. While there are many detractors who still doubt the viability and efficiency of EVs, there are more believers today than in the 1990s.

For one thing, battery technology - the weakest link - has progressed significantly. Just ask Vancouver-based Advanced Lithium Power, founded and led by Singapore-born businessman Lim Loong Keng. The company is supplying lithium-manganese batteries to petrol-electric carmaker Fisker Karma.

Or China's listed BYD, which says it has developed an electric car that can do 400km on a single charge. BYD counts among its investors Mr Warren Buffett, who forked out US$230 million (S$337 million) last September for a 10 per cent stake in the company, which makes only electric and hybrid vehicles.

Or six-year-old California-based Tesla Motors, which unveiled its second electric car in March. The Model S saloon hits 100kmh in less than six seconds and has a range of 480km.

It is high time Singapore plugged in, and left the switch on this time.