Going Electric: Singapore Kickstarts EV Adoption

Singapore has been toying with electric vehicle (EV) adoption for years, but no significant progress has been made to date. It aims to remedy this from 2020 with a new network of thousands of charging stations, and a new EV manufacturing facility. By Jeremy Torr.

Hyundai’s new EV manufacturing centre in Singapore. Courtesy Hyundai.

Singapore, October 2020. At a recent ceremony, Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong announced that his government has signed a S$400 million ($295 million) deal with Korean manufacturer Hyundai to establish a new Hyundai Motor factory in Singapore which will eventually produce up to up to 30,000 electric vehicles (EVs) a year.

“This is a major step forward,” said Lee. “This facility is the first of its kind in the world. Automotive activities are once again becoming viable in Singapore. EVs have a different supply chain, fewer mechanical parts and more electronics, which all play to Singapore’s strengths,” he added.

Plenty of potential in other Asian countries - Charge+ CEO Goh Chee Kiong. Courtesy Charge+.

As well as manufacturing EVs, Singapore is poised to make owning one a viable everyday option too. A new outfit, Charge+, has plans to roll out 10,000 charging points across the island over the next ten years. “This investment will support Singapore’s goal of phasing out IC (internal combustion) engined vehicles by 2040,” said the company in a statement. Initially, Charge+ will concentrate on three key market segments - residential, commercial/industrial, and fleets. As part of this it will install charging points in public and private housing estates, with especial emphasis on condominiums where EV takeup is expected to be highest.

“The vision of the new Charge+ (business) is to address the pain points (related to owning conventional IC vehicles) faced by dense cities such as Singapore,” said Charge+ CEO Goh Chee Kiong. “Our mobility proposal is that the car is green, but the power supply is also going to be green – not immediately but in future,” he added. 

The Charge+ charger saves carpark space. Courtesy Charge+.

One unique issue faced by EV charger installers in Singapore has been size. Traditionally, many EV chargers have been bulky – but this simply won’t work in Singapore’s floorspace-poor carparks. Charge+’s slim charger design will help address this issue; it will also make the company’s design more attractive to export markets across other densely built-up Asian countries where parking is tight, said Goh. 

The new network will be rolled out in conjunction with a specially developed app which will help monitor and allocate capability throughout the network, as well as servicing users who need to locate chargers, start charging or initiate payment for a charge up. “This will become a game-changer for our EV sector. We aim to make the charging experience convenient and pleasant (as well as) affordable for residents and businesses,” said Goh.

Hyundai is equally bullish about the potential for EV business. “We will strive for … a Mobility Paradigm Shift,” noted Hyundai EVChairman Euisun Chung. “I am confident the innovations that spring from (our new Singapore facility) will shape our future global society for the better and contribute to the progress of humanity.”

The company’s new car plant will allow customers to purchase and customise vehicles online using their smartphones, and will make use of Singapore’s existing high-tech sector capabilities as well as Hyundai’s on-demand manufacturing technology. Customers will be able to monitor progress as their car is built, and once it is ready for delivery, it will be transferred to a special test track where customers can drive it in controlled conditions. In time this could even extend to aerial EVs, says Hyundai.

“The moves (to EV adoption) will introduce important new capabilities in areas such as electric vehicles and urban air mobility,” asserted Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) Chairman, Dr. Beh Swan Gin. “This will create new opportunities for Singaporeans.”

Demand Smoothing: Off-Season EcoTourism

Binna Burra - open for business, in the week too. Courtesy Binna Burra.

Expecting a steady year-round flow of bookings for any destination is a big ask at the best of times. And we are not in the best of times, right now. So how can operators make most efficient use of their facilities and attractions to ensure predictable footfalls all year long? Jeremy Torr investigates.

Singapore, October 2020. Keeping booking numbers up in the off-season is always a challenge. Luckily, eco-tourism destinations have a slightly less onerous task than the sun-sand-sea destinations that feature huge crushes of humanity in summer, and empty beaches in winter. Broadly speaking, eco-tourists are looking for substance on their visits, rather than vacuous environments but even so, attracting bookings during winter, wet season, or post disaster can be a very real challenge.

“Now we have partially recovered from the 2019 bushfires, we have enough (usable) accommodation to keep our bookings up at the weekends, but our big challenge is getting people here mid week,” says Steven Noakes, Chairman at Binna Burra Lodge, Queensland. Noakes adds that one of the other major challenges that Binna Burra has faced has been raising money to help with rebuilding.

“We were what you could call the first ever Australian crowdfunded, nature-based venture back in 1933,” he explains, “so we have a long history of custodianship from people and families that have been involved for generations.” Noakes says that this sense of belonging to local society has made a big difference to visitor numbers - and raising money.

Generating Binna Burra’s level of community support involvement takes time – possibly years – but pays long term dividends to operators who can call on friends to help fill rooms as well as support in material ways.

Other strategies to homogenise and manage demand at eco-destinations come from federal trade bodies to marketing gurus to local government worthies. They include tried and tested options such as offering special Flash Sale prices timed for when potential customers are looking for options; calling on a well-maintained customer list (even using a newsletter to emphasise belonging); targeting the educational sector during term-time when specific activities reflect curriculum needs; staging a specially-designed competition that highlights the unique attractions of the destination; and setting up selected cross-marketing projects that call on the expertise of strategic partners. Add to that, says Noakes, the importance of imprinting.

A heritage of community and educational participation is a massive asset for generating repeat visitor numbers year round. Courtesy Binna Burra.

“Making your operation kid-friendly is so important,” adds Noakes. “This means they remember visiting when they were small, bring their kids in turn, and that goes down through generations. It’s a core part of our operation, and it is a strong part of the loyalty we see from (repeat) visitors.”

Building on all of these approaches can help bring more predictability and promote  year round demand, notes Randy Durband, president of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, but operators must also dial in their unique situations and challenges to ensure they retain a unique and workable marketing angle.

"All (attractions) need meaningful destination-management plans and management structures that ensure sustainability in a very broad sense," said Durband. "And that includes addressing the issue of seasonality.”

Luckily, selective forms of tourism such cultural tourism and ecotourism “show lower concentration of tourist arrivals” across particular times of the year, and seem to be showing a trend towards evening out across the seasons, according to research. “The concentration of tourist demand for … cultural and ecotourism is more evenly (spread) throughout the year, ensuring the sustainability of development,” suggests Goran Ćorluka from the University of Split, Croatia. And even if the visitors do tail off, the relative downtime can be used usefully. Wendy Bithell of Vision Walk-Eco Tours used the spare hours to creatively diversify her business in association with a local government-run cultural program.

Wendy Bithell mixes real with online virtual as part of her strategy to engage more people, more of the time. Courtesy Vision Walk-Eco Tours.

“This year our Dark Science event delivers bite-size happenings and experiences,” says Bithell’s website. “They will take place online, in person, under cover of night and in the trees. We are looking at … ancient Indigenous Astronomy, creatures under cover of night, emerging forests and … discovering the art in science.” This kind of reaching out allows Bithell’s operation to establish itself as an expert operator, offers a glimpse of free marketing, and also showcases what real visitors can expect when they do visit.

As Australian federal agency Austrade notes, one key to keeping customer arrivals up is “creating a business environment where ecotourism and nature-based tourism can thrive”. It suggest that, like Bithell, operators can tap into National, State and Local Government policies and adapt them, at little or no cost, to encourage valid  ecotourism experiences on an ongoing basis. But one of the most valuable assets for any operation, asserts Binna Burra’s Noakes, is its representative support base.

“We have had a Friends of Binna Burra group since 1985,” he says. “It is mostly older people that are members, but they are very active in plant propagation and tree planting, keeping weeds down and so on. But recently we have started a new group: Millenials of Binna Burra (MoBBs).”

Noakes says that today’s millennials “represent ambitious and creative young people capable of rethinking the world with their approaches to corporate social responsibility” and that they are vital to maintaining interest in eco-tourism. “As we lay the foundations of the (future) of Binna Burra, we would be wise to engage the inputs of the millennial generation,” he observes.

Indeed, innovative approaches like this are expanding the base, and the potential visit numbers too through “new and bold conversations with people who have the enthusiasm, energy and skills to initiate technological, social and environmental change” he adds.

“You can never stop people from littering, chasing animals and not considering the environment,” he says. “But we can help educate more people as to why it is not a good thing.”

Get more ecotourism insights from Steven Noakes, a speaker at the 2019 Global Ecotourism Asia Pacific Conference. The premier event of Ecotourism Australia will be held from 1 to 3 December 2020 in Margaret River, Western Australia. Live streaming options are available too; register today.