Half of Singapore’s public bus fleet to be electric by 2030

Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that electric buses are expected to make up half of Singapore’s 5,847 vehicle-strong public bus fleet by 2030.

The LTA will issue a tender this month to procure around 400 new electric buses to replace diesel buses that are reaching their statutory lifespan. The tender is to be awarded by the second half of the year, with the buses expected to be deployed for passenger service from December 2024 onwards. 

By 2040, Singapore aims to having a 100% cleaner energy bus fleet, the government agency said.

To date, 60 electric buses have already been purchased and deployed. The operational and technical insights from this initial rollout will support the rollout of more electric buses from the new tender.

In 2021, Singapore had already issued plans to clean up the taxi business, with no new diesel-powered cars or taxis to be allowed to be registered from 2025.

Singapore’s bus infrastructure is also being upgraded to support the electrification of the public bus fleet. As part of LTA’s electrification roadmap, LTA has installed chargers at Bulim Bus Depot, Seletar Bus Depot, Loyang Bus Depot, Bedok Integrated Transport Hub and Bukit Panjang Integrated Transport Hub. 

By 2030, more bus depots will be progressively completed and commissioned to support the expanded fleet of electric buses. These include upcoming bus depots at Sengkang West, Gali Batu, East Coast, Kim Chuan and Tengah.

EV charger deployment is also progressing towards the target of 60,000 public charging points by 2030. The first batch of HDB charging points under LTA’s large-scale tender was deployed last month and 2,000 more charging points will be deployed by the end of this year. The Housing & Development Board (HDB) is Singapore’s public housing authority.

By the end of this year, more than one-third of HDB carparks would be equipped with at least three chargers. In addition, the deployment of more than 600 charging points under the pilot LTA-URA tender, covering around 200 public car parks, will also be completed this month. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the LTA launched Singapore’s pilot tender for electric vehicle charging points at public car parks in November 2020.

LTA also announced that it will be extending the Electric Vehicle Common Charger Grant (ECCG) by another two years until December 2025. The ECCG was launched in July 2021 and was initially slated to end in December this year. To date, the ECCG has co-funded the installation of 267 chargers.  The extension will serve to encourage the deployment of chargers in non-landed private residences (NLPR), and complement the recent amendment of the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act to lower the minimum resolution threshold for EV charger installation in strata-titled properties to 50%, from up to 90% previously.

The ECCG will continue to co-fund 50% of the cost components of smart chargers, subject to an overall cap of SGD4,000 (USD2,975) per charger. 

Interested parties may visit LTA’s website for more details and apply via the Government’s Business Grants Portal.