Singapore (VNA) – The use of electric vehicles (EVs) in Singapore is rising rapidly, but experts and consumers say the key challenge now lies not in the number of charging stations, but in their locations and whether charging models are aligned with actual user demand.
Electric vehicles (EVs) made up nearly 60% of new car registrations in the first quarter of 2026, overtaking combustion engine and hybrid models for the first time, and a jump from 45% in 2025 and 3.8% in 2021.
Industry players say the latest figures reflect a permanent shift in consumer behaviour rather than a one-off surge.
Singapore is now in the steep part of the growth curve seen in countries leading the EV movement such as Norway, the Netherlands and parts of China, said Associate Professor Jimmy Peng from the National University of Singapore's (NUS) electrical and computer engineering department.
Assoc. Prof. Victor Kwan from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) Academy attributed rising EV ownership partly to government policies that support EVs and penalise more pollutive vehicles, such as higher surcharges under the Vehicular Emissions Scheme.
Greater product variety, rebates and competitively priced Category A COE models from Chinese brands have also broadened appeal.
As of March, 30,500 charging points have been installed in Singapore, more than halfway to the target of 60,000 nationwide by 2030. Of these, about 3,500 are fast chargers.
Peng argued that charger numbers were increasingly becoming a vanity metric. If close to 60% of new cars are EVs, the right question shifts from 'how many points' to 'how many usable kilowatts, in the right locations, at what utilisation', he said.
Over 90% of HDB car parks are equipped with slow chargers. Fast-charging hubs are being rolled out, with at least one per HDB town planned by end-2027. Some EV owners, however, said they often have to wait or head to shopping malls to access fast chargers, as charging stations in residential areas are usually fully occupied in the evenings. A more significant bottleneck is the electrical infrastructure in many HDB precincts and older condominiums built before 2010.
EV planners will need to model the increase in charger demand due to increase in number of EVs, but offset by the improvements in battery technology, to project more accurately the rate of installing new charging points, what type and where they should be located, expers said./.
