Mr Deputy Speaker, this Bill comes at an important time. From 2030, all new car registrations must be cleaner-energy models, and pure petrol cars can no longer be registered. EV adoption is accelerating. In the first eight months of this year, EVs made up 63 per cent of new car registrations, and our EV population has reached about 82,100. We now have about 34,700 charging points, a little over halfway to our target of 60,000 by 2030. Yet only about one in nine cars on our roads today is fully electric, and around 436,800 cars still run on petrol alone. As these cars are replaced, demand for charging will grow sharply. Charging must be safe, reliable and convenient, whether at home, in HDB carparks or in condominiums.
My speech will focus on Part 2 of the Bill, which amends the Electric Vehicles Charging Act. I will make three points: first, on bringing all chargers under one framework; second, on the lighter inspection regime for landed homes; and third, on moving beyond slow charging.
1. One framework for all chargers
Sir, before the Electric Vehicles Charging Act came into force in December 2023, chargers in Singapore fell into a patchwork. Some were approved. Some had a Letter of No Objection, an administrative clearance under Technical Reference 25. Others had neither, and were installed as general electrical installations under the oversight of a Licensed Electrical Worker. Many of these were installed in good faith by early adopters, commercial operators and fleet owners, at a time when the Government was actively encouraging EV adoption.
This Bill tidies up how chargers installed before the Act are treated. It sets out clear categories for these early-installed chargers, whether they were approved, issued a Letter of No Objection, or neither, and allows LTA to require their owners to affix approval labels or new charger identification labels. It replaces physical registration marks with registration codes that can be checked in a prescribed manner. It also strengthens enforcement: where a person is shown to have connected a charger to a vehicle, the law will presume that the person used it to charge the vehicle, making it easier to act against the use of unregistered chargers. I support these changes. As we ramp up charger installation across HDB estates, condominiums and workplaces, a clear and consistent regime gives MCSTs, landlords and EV owners certainty.
I have two clarifications for the Minister. First, failing to affix a label when required is an offence. Many early chargers were installed years ago, and some owners may not realise they are responsible for one. At present, does LTA or EMA have a database of all chargers that have been installed in Singapore? How much time will owners be given to affix the new labels, will the labels be provided free of charge, and how will LTA reach owners of older chargers so that no one commits an offence unknowingly? Second, with registration marks replaced by codes, how will residents, carpark operators and enforcement officers check on the spot whether a charger is registered?
2. Lighter inspections, backed by evidence
Sir, the Bill changes the inspection regime so that periodic inspections apply only to prescribed chargers, while giving LTA a new power to order ad-hoc inspections of any charger. I understand this will allow chargers at landed homes to be exempted from the current two-yearly inspection. I support this. Our chargers are already protected by several layers of safety: type approval by LTA, built-in circuit protection and automatic shut-offs under our national standard, and installation and certification by a Licensed Electrical Worker. With these safeguards in place, a mandatory inspection every two years adds cost for homeowners without adding much safety.
But a lighter regime should still be backed by evidence. The Bill allows LTA to order an ad-hoc inspection where it has reason to believe that a charger is unfit, dangerous or has been used in an offence, but also, more broadly, simply to ensure the charger’s continued fitness for charging. This last ground does not require any suspected problem. I ask the Minister how LTA intends to use it. Will it be applied to specific charger models, older installations, or chargers with a history of faults? And how much time will homeowners be given to comply?
3. Moving beyond slow charging
Sir, this Bill also tightens the requirements on developers of new buildings, and on owners of developments undergoing electrical work, to provide a minimum electrical load for EV charging, and charging points that draw a minimum active electrical load. Both will be set by formulae prescribed by the Minister. I welcome this. But how this formula is set will decide whether charging is truly convenient, and I am concerned that our network today relies too heavily on slow charging.
As my colleague Mr Louis Chua pointed out at this year’s Committee of Supply debate, it is typical for an HDB multi-storey carpark to have only three slow chargers. In Sengkang, my residents have been calling for more chargers in their carparks, and for fast chargers closer to home. A slow charger of 7.4 kW needs about eight hours to fully charge a car with a typical 60 kWh battery. That works for a resident who can leave the car plugged in overnight, but not for a shift worker, a private-hire driver, or a family that needs the car first thing in the morning. With only three chargers per carpark, residents must queue, move their cars in the middle of the night, or look elsewhere. As more residents switch to EVs ahead of 2030, this pressure will only grow.
Other cities with some similarities to Singapore have moved faster. In Hong Kong, where most people also live in high-rise flats, about one in five public chargers is a quick or fast charger. Here, about 88 per cent of our chargers are AC chargers, and about half of these are rated at 7.4 kW or below. Only about 11 per cent are DC chargers. We do not publish the share of our public chargers that are fast chargers, and I think we should.
In her reply, the Senior Minister of State shared that there were 150 fast charging points at 70 carparks in HDB town centres and JTC premises, and that every HDB town will have at least one fast-charging hub, with at least six fast charging points, by the end of 2027. I welcome this. But one hub per town may not be enough for towns with high EV uptake. I therefore have three questions for the Minister. First, will the formula under this Bill account for fast charging, not just slow chargers, will it be reviewed as EV adoption grows, and will similar standards apply to HDB carparks? Second, will the Government set a target for, and regularly publish, the share of public chargers that are fast chargers and the total charging capacity available per EV, so that this House and the public can track whether charging keeps pace with EV growth? Third, in the same debate, the Senior Minister of State acknowledged that our real constraint is electrical infrastructure, and that the first phase of upgrades will benefit around 450 HDB multi-storey carparks by around 2029. What is the timeline for the remaining carparks, and will high-demand carparks be prioritised so that they can go beyond three chargers?
Finally, as we add more chargers in multi-storey carparks and condominium basements, more EVs will be parked and charging together in enclosed spaces, where a fire, however rare, can spread quickly and is harder to reach. I urge the Ministry to work with SCDF to review the fire safety requirements at these shared charging locations to ensure that there is adequate equipment and safety infrastructure in place.
Conclusion
Mr Deputy Speaker, this Bill puts in place a clearer, more consistent framework for EV charging, and I support it. As we ask residents, MCSTs and operators to adapt, let us ensure that safety assurance is backed by data, that the transition is supported so that no one bears costs unfairly for having adopted early, and that our charging network is fast and dense enough for the EV future we are building towards. With that, Sir, I support the Bill.
