Race to put electric cars on Singapore's roads

A vision of the future?
Esther Ng, Today Online 11 Jul 09;

IT MAY take till 2011 before mainstream manufacturers roll out their first vehicles, but the race to put electric cars on Singapore's roads is already heating up.

Having increased his fleet from one to five, The Green Car Company managing director Clarence Tan, 25, told Today he is moving onto to the next stage of test-bedding, months ahead of Nissan and Renault's plans to take part in the Energy Market Authority's $20-million test-bedding trial. The fund was launched in May.

And last week, Mitsubishi was the latest manufacturer to showcase its first electric car in Singapore. It also pledged to join the national trial.

Even as the electric vehicle scene revs up, it will not be as simple as putting more of these prototypes on the road, car companies added. "There's the charging infrastructure to consider - we need to build that (and) find which type of batteries perform best in our hot tropical weather and so on," said Mr Tan, who has been evaluating battery performance the past two years.

In the next part of his study, his Singapore-based company hopes to boost the current range of his NMG (No More Gas) car from 50km to 120km and to switch from lead acid batteries to lithium batteries so as to increase battery life from three years to six.

Another firm, Ample, has similar plans.

Founded by former Chartered Semiconductor employee Lim Kian Wee, it will be testing an electric Sports Utility Vehicle on the roads next month with Nanyang Polytechnic and National University of Singapore.

It is also looking at R&D for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, among other technology.

The company, based in Singapore and California, plans to mass-market plug-in vehicle technology from 2010.

Infrastructure, for which EMA's fund will be largely used, will be key, though.

"We need to work out the charging points, which technology to use, how do we improve battery charging times ... There are so many things to test-bed before electric vehicles become a norm," said NUS mechanical engineering associate professor Wong Yoke San, who is working with Ample.

But why have mainstream manufacturers not committed to a definite date for test-bedding their cars? An EMA spokesperson said, "It's not that car manufacturers are reluctant to take part, but they're not sure when the cars will come on line. A lot of these cars are prototype models."