Local News: Energy Market Authority Announces Electric Vehicle Testing Program

With the expectation that Electric Vehicles or EVs to be at the forefront of motoring ifrom 2015, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) has put in place a national EV test-bedding programme which was launched in May 2009. The programme allows various car manufacturers and technology companies to experiment and examine the requirements needed, such as electrical infrastructure, to charge these EVs.

The test-bed programme, to be managed by both EMA and LTA, will run for three years starting from 2010 and will cost a total of $20 million. Launcing this programme will help Singapore to position itself as a 'living laboratory' for companies to research, develop and test innovative solutions in real environment.

As such, EVs from Renault-Nissan, Mitshubishi and other manufacturers will be used for the test-bed programme with Mitsubishi planing to introduce up to 50 i-MiEV Electric cars in 2010. Renault-Nissan has also indicated that their EVs will be commercially available in 2011.

On top of the introduction of the EVs, a tender for the construction of a small network of EV Charging stations will be launched next year as well to facilitate the testing of the EVs.

Through the test-bed program, information such as driving range between charging, ease of charging, annual mileage and total costs of operation will be collected during the test-bed period. Such data will help in evaluating the costs and benefits and hence conclude the overall feasibility of EVs adoption in Singapore.

Credits: wilswong