S’pore’s first electric car-sharing service to begin on Dec 12

SINGAPORE — Drivers keen to try an electric car on roads here can do so from next Tuesday (Dec 12), when the first large-scale sharing service for such vehicles is officially rolled out.

BlueSG, the company behind the initiative, will launch the service with 80 electric cars and 120 charging points at 30 locations across the island, a smaller roll-out than announced initially.

The firm had previously said it was planning to introduce a sharing service with 125 vehicles and 250 charging points.

Of the first 30 charging stations to be in place, 18 are located in public housing estates such as Tampines, Bishan and Punggol, while the other 10 are situated in the city centre. The remaining two are located in one-north and the Science Park.

BlueSG, which also unveiled the price plans for the service on Monday (Dec 4), did not say why its plans were scaled back.

In a statement, the firm said interested drivers can choose between two subscription plans – a “premium” yearly membership plan priced at S$15 a month, or a weekly membership plan that has no recurring fees.

“Premium” members will be charged 33 cents per minute for rental of the cars, while weekly members will pay a higher rental fee of 50 cents per minute. Users must rent the cars for at least 15 minutes.

BlueSG, the company behind the initiative, will launch the service with 80 electric cars and 120 charging points at 30 locations across the island, a smaller roll-out than announced initially.

Interested users can sign up at www.bluesg.com.sg.

The company’s managing director, Mr Franck Vitte, said BlueSG is still “in the midst of finalising” the service’s accompanying mobile app, which will allow users to make bookings. The app will be available from Tuesday on Apple’s App Store and Google Play for Android phones.

Going ahead, the company aims to put 1,000 electric vehicles on the roads and install 2,000 charging points in Singapore by 2020.

TODAY previously reported a delay in BlueSG’s roll-out due to the need to streamline the process for authorisation to build the charging stations, a concept that is new to the market here. Mr Vitte had said that various parties, such as the parking agencies and energy company SP Group, also had to be brought together.