How relevant is EV for Singapore in 2020?

[Hons]

4 minutes ago, inlinesix said:

SP Power is installing the infra now.  From SP Power app, i can see the charging station around me.

 

yes and they have promised to install around 2,000 charging points around sg. but unfortunately, most of these will not be at hdb car parks, so we cannot charge overnight. if chargers are a plenty, then we can charge the ev while running our errands or during work, then ok lah. 

[inlinesix]

4 minutes ago, Hons said:

yes and they have promised to install around 2,000 charging points around sg. but unfortunately, most of these will not be at hdb car parks, so we cannot charge overnight. if chargers are a plenty, then we can charge the ev while running our errands or during work, then ok lah. 

With 43kwh charger, Nissan Leaf will take 1hr 15mins or less to charge from 0 to full.

It can be charged anytime while running errand.  However, it needs change of routine.

[Ct3833]

On 9/14/2020 at 12:44 PM, Volvobrick said:

If our gahmen really wants to do it, they could easily start with public buses. Even now there are so few hybrid ones. 

A sensible system to lower battery costs would be having wireless charging points at every bus stop and junction. Then the batteries can be made small and light (and cheap). Part of the 100bn wasted on Covid could have been used to develop this island wide wireless charging infrastructure for our future generations. 

I thought they have tried the BYD taxis but looks like disappeared from the road as well. No follow up, no sounds no pictures. 

[Hons]

10 minutes ago, Ct3833 said:

I thought they have tried the BYD taxis but looks like disappeared from the road as well. No follow up, no sounds no pictures. 

they are still around. and comfort is also trying out with hyundai kona. grab have 100-200 kona on the road.

 

[Hons]

who is think of buying an ev?

Edited September 15, 2020 by Hons

[Sorethum]

22 minutes ago, Hons said:

how is think of buying an ev?

I thought long and hard about buying an EV.

I stay landed, so was even prepared to install a charging point in the car porch.

But in the end the wallet won over the heart.

The cheapest two EVs were from MG and BYD....both > 120K.

Maybe one day all cars will be made in China, but as of 2020, I wasn't prepared to pay 120K for a made in China car.

Even Japanese hybrids from AD are expensive in SG.

Probably nothing bad with Korean hybrids from AD, but they weren't that cheap either.

Then I read about the Kicks E-Power - an electric motor that drives the car, and a petrol engine to recharge the battery, so no need charging point, and no range anxiety.

Somemore AD offered 10 year warranty for the battery.

Somemore launch promo price was < 100K.

So despite the Kicks being made in Thailand and interior very basic, I bought it!

 

[Hons]

14 minutes ago, Sorethum said:

I thought long and hard about buying an EV.

I stay landed, so was even prepared to install a charging point in the car porch.

But in the end the wallet won over the heart.

The cheapest two EVs were from MG and BYD....both > 120K.

Maybe one day all cars will be made in China, but as of 2020, I wasn't prepared to pay 120K for a made in China car.

Even Japanese hybrids from AD are expensive in SG.

Probably nothing bad with Korean hybrids from AD, but they weren't that cheap either.

Then I read about the Kicks E-Power - an electric motor that drives the car, and a petrol engine to recharge the battery, so no need charging point, and no range anxiety.

Somemore AD offered 10 year warranty for the battery.

Somemore launch promo price was < 100K.

So despite the Kicks being made in Thailand and interior very basic, I bought it!

 

what is your experience with the kicks e-power so far?

[Sorethum]

33 minutes ago, Hons said:

what is your experience with the kicks e-power so far?

I posted a review up at the Kicks page in SCM a few weeks ago - below is cut and paste from there....

Review:

I took delivery of a Grey Premium Plus Kicks just before National Day - one of the 1st batches to be released.

Been driving for over 2 weeks and just pumped my 2nd tank of petrol.

So far I’m lovin’ it!

The car itself is a rather basic compact crossover - some nice design cues here and there, but overall probably not striking or distinctive enough to stand out from the crowded field of competing small SUVs out there.

What makes the Kicks special, to me at least, is the E-Power technology - Nissan’s attempt to address the two biggest shortcomings of electric vehicles - the range anxiety, and the general lack of charging infrastructure.

How Nissan gets around this is to have a small petrol engine whose only function is to charge the battery that powers the electric motor, that drives the car.

Some have commented, not incorrectly, that it’s a roundabout and inefficient way of doing things, but on the contrary, I feel it’s a very clever solution!

I get the zippy, high torque ride of an electric car, but none of the range anxiety and worry over finding a charging station, plus I get the fuel efficiency of a hybrid vehicle!

Unfortunately, I’ve only managed 16.4km/l on my 1st tank of petrol - which, while much better than my previous ride, is nowhere as good as the 21km/l that Nissan claims.

Not sure if it’s the series-hybrid technology of the E-Power being not as efficient as the parallel-hybrid technology of the Toyota and Honda hybrids, or maybe it’s just my driving style, with a heavy right foot, in approximately 60% city, 40% highway conditions.

Anyways, I really think this Kicks deserves a test-drive.

It’s a small, zippy, good looking compact SUV that rides fairly well, has some nifty safety features, great sound system, comfy leather seats, a freezing cold air-con system, and is fairly fuel efficient!

Maybe after the test drive, you’ll end up liking it enough to buy it, like I did!

Likes:

- E-Power

- Fuel consumption quite good

- Bragging rights re driving an Electric Vehicle

- Not expensive (by SG standards) for a Japan branded electric/hybrid vehicle from AD

- Zippy ride

- Great sound system

- Intelligent Cruise Control

- Blind Spot Warning

- Comfy leather seats

- Powerful air-con

- Pretty good looking from the front and side

Dislikes:

- Made in Thailand

- FC not as good as stated

- Interior design cues all over the place - leather with contrast stitching also have, carbon fibre also have, hard shiny plastic also have

- Some bits, eg. window buttons, look like they could have come from a Nissan Sunny from 20 years ago

- No sun-roof option

- Boot has a lid drop

- Rear seats cannot fold completely flat

- No air-con vents for second row

- Various storage holes are useless - all too small or shallow to be useful or practical

- Backside a bit busy looking

[Hons]

3 minutes ago, Sorethum said:

I posted a review up at the Kicks page in SCM a few weeks ago - below is cut and paste from there....

Review:

I took delivery of a Grey Premium Plus Kicks just before National Day - one of the 1st batches to be released.

Been driving for over 2 weeks and just pumped my 2nd tank of petrol.

So far I’m lovin’ it!

The car itself is a rather basic compact crossover - some nice design cues here and there, but overall probably not striking or distinctive enough to stand out from the crowded field of competing small SUVs out there.

What makes the Kicks special, to me at least, is the E-Power technology - Nissan’s attempt to address the two biggest shortcomings of electric vehicles - the range anxiety, and the general lack of charging infrastructure.

How Nissan gets around this is to have a small petrol engine whose only function is to charge the battery that powers the electric motor, that drives the car.

Some have commented, not incorrectly, that it’s a roundabout and inefficient way of doing things, but on the contrary, I feel it’s a very clever solution!

I get the zippy, high torque ride of an electric car, but none of the range anxiety and worry over finding a charging station, plus I get the fuel efficiency of a hybrid vehicle!

Unfortunately, I’ve only managed 16.4km/l on my 1st tank of petrol - which, while much better than my previous ride, is nowhere as good as the 21km/l that Nissan claims.

Not sure if it’s the series-hybrid technology of the E-Power being not as efficient as the parallel-hybrid technology of the Toyota and Honda hybrids, or maybe it’s just my driving style, with a heavy right foot, in approximately 60% city, 40% highway conditions.

Anyways, I really think this Kicks deserves a test-drive.

It’s a small, zippy, good looking compact SUV that rides fairly well, has some nifty safety features, great sound system, comfy leather seats, a freezing cold air-con system, and is fairly fuel efficient!

Maybe after the test drive, you’ll end up liking it enough to buy it, like I did!

Likes:

- E-Power

- Fuel consumption quite good

- Bragging rights re driving an Electric Vehicle

- Not expensive (by SG standards) for a Japan branded electric/hybrid vehicle from AD

- Zippy ride

- Great sound system

- Intelligent Cruise Control

- Blind Spot Warning

- Comfy leather seats

- Powerful air-con

- Pretty good looking from the front and side

Dislikes:

- Made in Thailand

- FC not as good as stated

- Interior design cues all over the place - leather with contrast stitching also have, carbon fibre also have, hard shiny plastic also have

- Some bits, eg. window buttons, look like they could have come from a Nissan Sunny from 20 years ago

- No sun-roof option

- Boot has a lid drop

- Rear seats cannot fold completely flat

- No air-con vents for second row

- Various storage holes are useless - all too small or shallow to be useful or practical

- Backside a bit busy looking

great review. good that you are loving it.

when you mentioned you are staying in a landed ppty, i thought you would have settled for an ev. you would be able to charge your car at home and never having to drive to the nearest petrol station to fill up. generally, evs with 300km range and above do not gives you range anxiety. maybe in 2 yrs time when evs are cheaper, you will reconsider buying one.

[inlinesix]

Just now, Hons said:

great review. good that you are loving it.

when you mentioned you are staying in a landed ppty, i thought you would have settled for an ev. you would be able to charge your car at home and never having to drive to the nearest petrol station to fill up. generally, evs with 300km range and above do not gives you range anxiety. maybe in 2 yrs time when evs are cheaper, you will reconsider buying one.

To him, EV is too expensive.

Leaf is $154k.  Kona even more ex.

How come he never look at Renault Zoe?

[Sorethum]

Just now, inlinesix said:

To him, EV is too expensive.

Leaf is $154k.  Kona even more ex.

How come he never look at Renault Zoe?

Alamak forgot about the Zoe!!!

You're right...there's the Zoe as well - I should have considered it, cos my friend works in Renault, but I just don't like the look of the car, plus it's very small.

 

[Hons]

6 minutes ago, Sorethum said:

Alamak forgot about the Zoe!!!

You're right...there's the Zoe as well - I should have considered it, cos my friend works in Renault, but I just don't like the look of the car, plus it's very small.

 

the zoe is not very small on the inside. its a fairly good deal. MG is slightly bigger and more powerful for almost the same price, but you dont like made-in-china.

not sure if you would like tesla model 3, also made in china.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Hons

[Sorethum]

Committed liao la!

Not scared...hopefully this Kicks will not be my last car purchase.

Technology changes all the time, economies of scale will happen.

EV might slowly become cheaper.

New technologies might takeover - hydrogen fuel cars, automated vehicles, flying vehicles....who knows!

But back to the original point - EV in 2020 in Singapore - I feel not ready for prime time yet. Plus EVs are not cheap enough (to me) yet.

[Ct3833]

4 hours ago, Sorethum said:

I thought long and hard about buying an EV.

I stay landed, so was even prepared to install a charging point in the car porch.

But in the end the wallet won over the heart.

The cheapest two EVs were from MG and BYD....both > 120K.

Maybe one day all cars will be made in China, but as of 2020, I wasn't prepared to pay 120K for a made in China car.

Even Japanese hybrids from AD are expensive in SG.

Probably nothing bad with Korean hybrids from AD, but they weren't that cheap either.

Then I read about the Kicks E-Power - an electric motor that drives the car, and a petrol engine to recharge the battery, so no need charging point, and no range anxiety.

Somemore AD offered 10 year warranty for the battery.

Somemore launch promo price was < 100K.

So despite the Kicks being made in Thailand and interior very basic, I bought it!

 

I thought about it too but my concern is if the batteries catch fire during the high current charging, the fire will burn down my whole house 😓😓

[ElectricYouth]

5 hours ago, Hons said:

i have a different opinion on this. most of us stay in non-landed properties, making charging infra a big issue. an average ev need to charge 2 times/wk. hence 1 charger can accomodate 3 evs for overnight charging. maybe another 3 during the day. (total 6 evs). talking about hdb block, if each block have 18 evs, and 2-3 blocks share 1 carpark, we will need 9-10 chargers for each carpark. each charger takes 32A for 7kW charging rate, hdb will need another sub-station to provide 320A for a 10-charger installation. now that is expensive. and hdb have around 4,000 carparks. but if we adopt battery swap, then the infra is closer to current petrol station in term of numbers and ev owners waiting time is not much longer than filling up (15-20 mins).

I know nuts about electricity infra so perhaps you are right on cost. Maybe that’s why bluesg charges at 3.7kw?

but battery swap requires uniformity in design. That’s going to be hard to impose across manufacturers unless Singapore only sells 1 brand.

would installing a pair of SP rapid chargers be cheaper than providing 320A for 10 charger installation? Or does situating the rapid chargers at commercial buildings mean the required electricity supply is already there?

[Voodooman]

On 9/14/2020 at 9:05 PM, Lala81 said:

No need to bother lah. When autonomous driving is here in 5-10 years time. Just change your habits for that bandwagon.

That is the real game changer. Grab/CDG app + autonomous driving electric cars managed by the companies themselves.
EVs are a business that will put itself out of bizness once autonomous driving comes along.
Small turbos, hybrids for the win in SG while awaiting the above. Whichever version u like, nissan style or honda/toyota style.

You are expecting with the advent of autonomous driving technology, in 10 years, EV will be gone?  Why?

It is possible that the day you can book a driverless car to go anyway, it might make private car ownership redundant (which I doubt, probably not in 10 years) but that will be more reason for the operators to use an EV fleet. 

From what i am reading, it is either EV or hydrogen fuel vehicle. 

[Voodooman]

On 9/14/2020 at 8:04 PM, ElectricYouth said:

If you are referring to the electric jags, it’s not the e-pace but the i-pace. 

The acceleration is pretty amazing for an SUV. I was jiak by one the other day (all within speed limit).  Lol...

[inlinesix]

10 minutes ago, Voodooman said:

You are expecting with the advent of autonomous driving technology, in 10 years, EV will be gone?  Why?

It is possible that the day you can book a driverless car to go anyway, it might make private car ownership redundant (which I doubt, probably not in 10 years) but that will be more reason for the operators to use an EV fleet. 

From what i am reading, it is either EV or hydrogen fuel vehicle. 

New S Class will intro Level 3 autonomous driving