PUB to replace 47 diesel-powered vehicles with EVs in 2025 in deals worth almost $5m
(Photo credit: ST Photo)
Source: The Straits Times
More electric vehicles (EVs) are on the way for PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, as it phases out some diesel-powered ones.
In July, it awarded contracts for 47 EVs to two subsidiaries of multi-brand motor group Cycle & Carriage (C&C). Valued at $4.96 million, the vehicles include vans and pickup trucks.
They will be used in PUB’s daily operations, including for quick response in areas impacted by flash floods, water quality sampling and delivering water to locations during disruptions.
PUB chief sustainability officer Ridzuan Ismail told The Straits Times that the new EVs will replace 47 vehicles with internal combustion engines in 2025, and follow a pilot batch of six units in 2021.
“This is in line with Singapore’s vision to phase out vehicles with internal combustion engines and have all vehicles run on cleaner energy by 2040,” he said.
The agency said in its 2022 sustainability report that it wanted to progressively replace 70 diesel-powered vehicles by 2024 to reduce carbon emissions with “suitable EV models running on cleaner energy”.
At present, PUB has nearly 180 vehicles.
According to Mr Ridzuan, being able to configure a vehicle to suit PUB’s operational needs is one of its considerations with the transition to EVs.
“Other factors include the availability of commercial EVs on the market, as well as the vehicles’ range and battery life,” he added.
Responding to queries from ST, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) said all new cars procured and registered by the public sector from 2023 must be clean-energy models with no tailpipe emissions, as part of the Government’s GreenGov.SG sustainability initiative launched in 2021.
These would generally refer to EVs. There are alternative technologies such as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles but these are not readily available.
Statutory boards will make the switch to EVs when the certificates of entitlement of their vehicles expire or when the vehicles are due for replacement, MOT added.
There are no available figures on the rate of government-wide EV adoption. MOT said the number of government fleet vehicles that have been converted to EVs is “still low”, as the requirement was introduced only in the public sector’s 2023 financial year, which started in April 2023.
“However, we expect the number to rise with time when the vehicles are due for replacement and as EV adoption across the vehicle segments rises.”
The ministry added that the same requirement applies to other types of vehicles, such as trucks used by the public sector, but this depends on feasibility, since the availability of EV models is not as prevalent and may also be significantly costlier.
Checks with motor dealers suggest that there is a variety of goods-carrying electric vans from various brands, including BYD from China, Citroen from France and Mercedes-Benz from Germany.
But there are few options when it comes to other types of light commercial vehicles, such as minibuses, small refrigerated trucks or vehicles with open loading decks.
Based on information from the Government’s procurement portal GeBiz, for the PUB contract, only three of the eight participating parties submitted bids to supply electric double cabin vehicles, or pickup trucks.
Cycle & Carriage opened an electric commercial vehicle hub on July 10 offering Citroen and Maxus models. (Photo credit: ST Photo)
Eventually, the contract for 14 double cabin pickup trucks was awarded to Cycle & Carriage Automotive, along with seven vans that can carry both goods and passengers, and one high-roof van.
Another 25 electric vans will come from Cycle & Carriage Industries.
For instance, the electric pickup truck PUB will use is the Maxus T90 EV Electric.
It is a 5.4m vehicle with four doors and a loading bed. It can travel up to 330km before needing to recharge its batteries.
Expecting more interest, C&C opened an electric commercial vehicle hub in Ubi on July 10.