The Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) has announced plans to accelerate the electrification of public and private transport in Singapore to reduce harmful emissions.
The Singapore government has set a new target to reduce land transport emissions, which peaked at 7.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2016. The LTA now intends to reduce these emissions by 80% by or around 2050.
To achieve this target, the LTA will intensify efforts to electrify public bus fleets and incorporate more clean energy measures into transport infrastructure. In addition, more will be done to encourage the adoption of private electric vehicles (EV) and taxi fleets over those powered by fossil fuels.
Electrification of Public Buses and Taxis
The LTA has committed to operating a 100% cleaner energy bus fleet by 2040. So far, they have purchased 60 electric buses to gain an understanding of the operational and technical considerations of a larger rollout. All bus purchases until 2030 will now primarily be electric, so that by 2030, half of the nation’s public bus fleet will be electric. Over 400 diesel buses that have reached their statutory lifespan will be replaced by 2025.
Singapore taxi operators have also committed to ensuring at least half of taxis will be electric by 2030. To support this, the LTA is extending the statutory lifespan of all electric taxis from eight years to 10 years to give operators more time to optimise their investments. 50% of the GrabRentals private hire car fleet will also go electric by 2030.
Building EV Infrastructure
To drive the adoption of electric vehicles, every Housing and Development Board (HDB) town will be EV-Ready by 2025. The LTA will deploy charging points in all HDB carparks by 2025, with an initial minimum of three chargers in each carpark.
LTA will also progressively upgrade the required electrical infrastructure in all residential estates to support EV charging. These upgrades will be financed by the LTA through green bonds, and the costs will be recovered from EV charging operators and users.
Revised MPO Threshold
To support the adoption of electric cars, the LTA are revising the Category A Maximum Power Output (MPO) threshold for electric cars from 97kW to 110kW. This change will allow more mass-market electric cars to be classed as Category A.
This change will take effect from the first Certificate of Entitlement bidding exercise in May 2022.
Harnessing Solar Power
To reduce carbon emissions and lower energy costs, LTA will install solar panels on the roofs of new or recently-upgraded land transport infrastructure such as rail and bus depots and offices.
In addition, LTA will call an open tender to deploy solar panels on other land transport infrastructure, such as the upcoming Integrated Train Testing Centre, pedestrian overhead bridges, and covered linkways. This will allow the LTA to contribute up to 20MWp of additional solar capacity, which is equivalent to the power needed to charge up to 285 single deck e-buses for a year.
