A new report has pegged Singapore to become the largest user of passenger electric vehicles (EVs) in South-east Asia by 2040. The report from Bloomberg’s energy research service BloombergNEF said 80 percent of all passenger vehicles in the city-state will become EVs by the aforementioned time.
The regional average has been deemed at 24 percent, The Straits Times reported citing the BloombergNEF report.
Singapore will be followed by Thailand with a 41 percent share. Vietnam (31 percent), Indonesia (25 percent), Malaysia (15 percent) and the Philippines (10 percent) are the others who have been mentioned in the report.
According to BloombergNEF, Singapore’s EV adoption rate was the highest in 2023 among the six South-east Asian nations. Electric vehicles accounted for about 19 percent of all vehicles sold in the country.
The trend has continued in 2024 as well. As per data from Singapore’s Land Transport Authority, EVs made up 32.1 percent of new car registrations in the city-state in the first seven months of this year.
The BloombergNEF report, released on Aug 26, pointed out that Singapore also had the highest density of public EV charging stations in South-east Asia in 2023. As per the report, Singapore had one charging station for every three EVs. In comparison, Thailand had one public charger for every 16 EVs, Malaysia had a ratio of 1:38 and Indonesia had 1:42.
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Battery prices will play an important role in the adoption on EVs, as per BloombergNEF. It said batteries are the most expensive component of EVs and falling prices are likely to attract more customers, as it will also lower costs of the vehicles.
Between 2010 and 2023, battery pack prices have plummeted 90 percent. The cost of batteries are predicted to go down further by 17 percent every time the quantities of batteries doubles in the market.
Singapore also has plans to make all of its 6,000 public buses electric by 2040. In the next six years, by 2030, half of its total buses will become electric.
