SINGAPORE: TotalEnergies SE said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy Singapore’s largest electric vehicle charging network from fellow French firm Bollore Group.
Known as ‘Blue Charge’, the network consists of more than 1,500 charge points installed in the city-state and represents about 85% of the charge points operating in Singapore.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Singapore is aiming to phase out all internal combustion engine vehicles by 2040, encouraging drivers to switch to electric vehicles through a range of measures. It aims to put in place 60,000 charging points by 2030.
The energy giant is also developing EV charging infrastructure in other cities such as Paris, Amsterdam, London and Brussels.
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While the EV adoption is largely driven by 2W and 3W segments, cars and buses too have begun to witness a rising trend in annual sales volumes. Although each segment will reach an inflexion point of adoption at its own pace depending on multiple supply and demand factors, what remains a common denominator across all vehicle segments to determine future rate of adoption, is a country wide and efficient network of charging stations.
Imagine you’re driving your electric vehicle (EV) down the highway and you are running low on battery. Now you can search for a charging station nearby or you could simply change lanes and drive over special charging strips embedded in the road. That’s the vision of Khurram Afridi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering, Cornerll University. He’s pioneering an innovative approach for the wireless charging of electric vehicles, autonomous forklifts and other mobile machines, while they remain in motion, according to Cornell Chronicle.