Singapore starts carsharing service with electric cars

Singapore has launched a car-sharing service from the French company BlueSG. The service uses small electric cars that can be ordered by anyone via a mobile app or a website. Singapore wants to reduce private car ownership with this.

According to BlueSG, there are currently 80 cars and 32 charging stations available to the public. That number should grow significantly; in 2020 there should be 1000 electric vehicles on the road and 500 charging stations with a total of 2000 charging points. This would make it the second largest car sharing service worldwide, after Paris. The cars are three-door hatchbacks that can accommodate four adults. The vehicles must be able to cover 200 kilometers on a single battery charge.

It was recently announced that Singapore will use self-driving buses in public transport by 2022. This is still a small-scale test, in which a small number of trips are carried out outside rush hour with buses that do not involve a human driver. The Singapore government is mainly targeting workers who take the bus and use less crowded bus routes. By deploying self-driving buses, Singapore hopes that more capacity can be created on these routes.

Singapore has been working on self-driving transport for years. The busy city-state is struggling with traffic congestion and the government sees carsharing services and self-driving cars as a solution to the problem. Companies are therefore often allowed to experiment with cars without human control.

BlueSG is part of the French Bollore, which already offers similar services in, for example, Paris, Lyon, Los Angeles and Turin.