Esther Ng, Today Online 8 Feb 10;
SINGAPORE - So confident is it that there will soon be island-wide charging points, a homegrown electric vehicle (EV) company has powered onto the scene - even as one other before it has closed, and another has only managed sales of three electric scooters so far.
At its Kaki Bukit showroom yesterday, homegrown company Ampere launched its range of electric scooters, claiming that these are the first in the region to hit 75 kmh.
Its chief executive, Ms Hemalatha Annamalai said that with government support, the infrastructure will take off "in the next couple of months".
However, EV entrepreneurs who MediaCorp spoke to noted that the current transport system is not EV-friendly enough.
What is needed, they said, is some creative thinking and a change in attitude - rather than expensive infrastructure investment - to accelerate Singapore's EV transport system.
For example, the issue of who pays for the electricity used in charging EVs has to be resolved. Access to these power points has been a reason why electric scooters have not taken off in Singapore, they said.
At worst, someone can be accused of electricity theft if official permission has not been given to use them.
Currently, there are such 10 lots to be found across Singapore including those at Parkway Parade, and Ikea stores at Alexandra and Tampines. These have been set up by Greenlots, the infrastructure arm of Zeco Scooters. At present, these lots are seemingly under-utilised.
One way therefore is to incentivise property owners either by subsidising the cost of such infrastructure or by other means, said Mr Lin Zhuang, vice-president of Greenlots,
He cited the example of the City of Vancouver which recently passed a law requiring all new apartment buildings to equip 20 per cent of parking lots with charging infrastructure.
It launched its electric scooter last April, but Zeco has only sold three and these were to people living in landed homes.
This is because electric scooters are too bulky to be brought into lifts - and hence into homes - for charging.
They are also subjected to limited use as they are not allowed onto expressways. For EVs to succeed, there also has to be a fundamental change from motor insurers.
"We still face difficulty in securing comprehensive insurance coverage for electric vehicles. Underwriters are not willing to take the risk to insure a new product in the market, especially since there isn't yet a critical mass of (such) vehicles," said Mr Lin.
For similar reasons, it is harder to get an auto loan for an EV, he added.
Ampere's Ms Hemalatha said the company's scooters are priced between $5.500 and $7,500 and have to be pre-ordered.
It has also launched a range of electric bicycles in five models, priced between $749 and $999.
These have a top speed of 25 km/h and it costs six to nine cents to charge the lead-acid battery for a distance of up to 50km.
This can be done at home.
In comparision it costs less than one cent to charge an electric scooter's lithium battery.
Ample - another homegrown company - closed down last October. It had plans to commercialise plug-in hybrid EV technologies, battery electric vehicle technologies, vehicle-to-grid technologies and integration with renewable energy smart charging systems.
When contacted, founder Lim Kian Wee declined to comment, but Professor Ian Gibson from the National University of Singapore's (NUS) mechanical engineering department said the company had "run into financing problems".
"Our students are all very disappointed. They were looking towards working on converting conventional engines to hybrids and the hope of working for Ample," he said.
Ample had teamed up with NUS to work on a dozen such "conversion kits".
In an earlier email to MediaCorp, Mr Lim said his dream was to create 500 green jobs in the next three years.
