New SG Grant Encourages EV Charger Installation in Non-Landed Private Residences
Singaporeans will soon have another incentive to purchase and use electric vehicles (EVs).
Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) has recently launched the Electric Common Charger Grant (ECCG) to encourage its citizens to install EVs in non-landed private residences (NLPRs) such as condominiums and private apartments. This is due to NLPRs forming a significant proportion of residences in the country, and as such, having an EV charger in them is an important step towards improving the coverage of the country's national EV charging network.
The Singaporean government plans to increase the number of charging points to 60,000 come 2030 as part of its Green Plan 2030. It previously planned to increase the number of EV chargers to 28,000 but increased it to 60,000 to further push the country to adopt EVs and become more eco-friendly.
According to Transport Minister S. Iswaran, the grant will co-fund installation costs of 2,000 EV chargers at NLPRs as an early adoption incentive. EV charger owners, whether an EV charging operator or the management of an NLPR, can apply for the grant, which covers three upfront cost components to install an EV charger: the charging system, fees for the work of licensed electrical workers as well as cabling and EV charger installation costs subject to a cap of S$1,000.
A recent example of an EV charging operator that can take advantage of this new grant is Tesla, whose Model 3 Electric is one of the popular EVs in the country. The automobile company has recently set up three EV supercharging points at the ninth level of Orchard Central's carpark, with plans to set up more charging stations in the coming months. These three are the first Tesla supercharging stations in Southeast Asia.
As the name implies, these charging stations are equipped with the Tesla V3 supercharger, which is expected to shorten charging time for Tesla EVs to 15 minutes compared to typical EV chargers charging time of up to a few hours.
The grant will co-fund 50% of the previously mentioned cost components with a S$4,000 overall cap for each charger. Additionally, only the installation of chargers with smart charging functions that allow the applicant to monitor and react to energy consumption information through adjustments to the charging rate will be co-funded. According to the LTA, this is to facilitate energy planning and more efficient electricity consumption.
Interested NLPR owners or EV charging operators may visit the LTA's website to apply for the grant through the Government's Business Grants Portal from 29 July 2021 to 31 December 2023 on a first-come, first-served basis or until 2,00 EV chargers have been approved for co-funding. This is due to the grant being designed to only fund the installation of EV chargers for up to 1% of residential parking lots within each NLPR, as it is only meant to start the initial deployment of EV chargers in as many NLPRs as possible.
