As Singapore moves towards sustainable energy, electric vehicles are slowly but surely making their debuts on our roads.
One of these cleaner forms of transportation are electric motorcycles.
To help in their adoption, two battery swap stations have been launched in Singapore.
Source: Gogoro on Facebook
They will make it possible for motorists to swap their empty batteries with fully charged ones in seconds.
In a news release on Friday (2 Sep), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said they had approved two applications for “regulatory sandboxes”.
Regulatory sandboxes are trials of new products/services in the “real world”, before they get full regulatory approval.
This is to assess the potential of such technologies.
In this case, the trials are for electric motorcycle battery swap stations.
Source: Gogoro on Facebook
Both will be involved in deliveries, and will be implemented “in the next few weeks”.
They will run for 12 months, LTA added.
The two trials will be conducted by two separate businesses — Taiwanese company Gogoro and Singaporean company MO Batteries.
Gogoro will partner Jardine Cycle & Carriage (JC&C) in their trial. Their electric motorcycles and battery swap stations will be used for last-mile deliveries, i.e. the part where the item is sent to the customer’s doorstep.
In a press release on Friday (2 Sep), Gogoro said JC&C will exclusively distribute their electric scooters in Singapore, as well as operate and install their battery swapping infrastructure here, including two new Battery Charge and Swap Stations.
They’ll mostly explore working with food delivery and logistics fleets.
Gogoro’s trial will make use of 20 electric motorcycles, 100 swappable batteries and two Gogoro stations, Channel NewsAsia (CNA) quoted an LTA spokesperson as saying.
Source: Gogoro on Facebook
MO Batteries, on the other hand, will partner with SingPost and Prosegur, a security solutions provider.
While also using their electric motorcycles in their trial, they’ll also look into “a combination of centralised charging and battery swap and storage”, LTA said.
In a media release on Friday (2 Sep), MO Batteries said they’ll be trialling their centralized charging and Battery Store and Swap Stations in Singapore.
Basically, they’ll charge detachable electric motorcycle batteries on their premises, and deliver these fully charged batteries to stations located at SingPost’s and Prosegur’s premises.
Source: MO Batteries
It’ll also give them the chance to show how electric motorcycles can be operated safely in Singapore.
MO Batteries will utilise six electric motorcycles, 30 swappable batteries, 14 chargers and two Battery Store and Swap Stations.
To offer even more convenience to electric motorcycle riders, depleted batteries can swapped for fresh ones “in a matter of seconds”.
That’s what Transport Minister S. Iswaran said on Friday (2 Sep) in his speech at the Land Transport Industry Day 2022 event at the Singapore Expo.
Source: Melvin Yong on Facebook
He also said more “regulatory sandboxes” might be coming, as LTA is in discussions with several industry players.
In this way, the Government hopes to encourage the adoption of more electric motorcycle models in Singapore.
The widespread acceptance of electric vehicles, as an alternative to petrol-powered vehicles, can then be a new frontier in tackling climate change.
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Featured image adapted from Gogoro on Facebook and MO Batteries.
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