Singapore launches electric car-sharing service!

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Tuesday launched an electric car-sharing service, the latest transport innovation aimed at encouraging people away from owning vehicles and keeping gridlock at bay in the space-starved city-state.

BlueSG, a subsidiary of France’s Bollore Group, rolled out the scheme with 80 cars and 32 charging stations -- which serve as drop-off and pick-up points -- and plans to expand its fleet more than 10-fold in coming years.

It is the latest effort by authorities in the tightly-controlled financial hub of 5.6 million to prevent the sort of gridlock that has blighted other fast-developing Asian cities. Officials have already introduced tough measures, including a licence fee that has pushed the average car price to over US$80,000, a freeze on car numbers on the roads, and major new investments in public transport.

The electric car scheme is being launched in partnership with the government, and the company hopes to eventually provide Singapore with the second-biggest electric car-sharing service in the world, after Paris.

BlueSG plans to increase the number of its cars to 100 by the end of the year, and is targeting 1,000 cars and 2,000 charging points by 2020. The specially-built Bluecars -- four-seaters with two doors -- are slightly bigger than a smart car and were designed with Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina.