CDG ENGIE, Yinson GreenTech to expand EV charging network in S’pore and M’sia to 8,000 by 2030

ComfortDelGro (CDG) ENGIE — a joint venture between ComfortDelGro and ENGIE Southeast Asia — signed a partnership agreement today (October 6) with Yinson GreenTech (YGT) to offer a combined network of over 1,000 EV charging points for Singaporean and Malaysian motorists.

Established in 2020, YGT is a subsidiary of Malaysian firm Yinson Holdings Berhad, which provides green technologies such as an advanced hydrofoil system for electric vessels, e-bikes, and swappable batteries among others.

Eirik Barclay, CEO of YGT, expressed his excitement for this partnership. During his opening address at the launch event, he shared that EV drivers from Singapore and Malaysia can now enjoy a more seamless driving experience during long cross-border trips across the Malaysian Peninsula.

We’ve long imagined a world where it’s easy to travel by EVs [and] cross the border. Now, we’re giving that seamless experience to drivers up and down the Malaysian Peninsula. For a long time, we’ve been hearing, ‘I can’t have an EV, it’s difficult to have an EV, what do I do when I go to Malaysia?’. Those questions have now been answered.

The largest Singapore-Malaysia EV charging network

This partnership has created the largest Singapore-Malaysia EV charging network by far, combining Yinson GreenTech’s chargEV, with approximately 400 charging points and CDG ENGIE, operating over 600.

Thanks to this collaboration, EV drivers from both Singapore and Malaysia can enjoy a smoother cross-border driving experience using their respective mobile apps: the chargEV app and the CDG ENGIE EV Charging app.

Starting tomorrow (October 7), users of both apps can access and utilise charging points offered by chargEV and CDG ENGIE without the need to download the other app.

Users can also make payments at the charging points in Singapore and Malaysia using their respective apps in their own currencies. CDG ENGIE EV Charging app users can make payments with a single card, while chargEV app users need to set up two cards for charging points in both Singapore and Malaysia, although these cards can be linked to the same credit card.

Working towards a net-zero nation by 2030

The EV industry in Singapore and Malaysia has been growing exponentially in recent years. However, there still exists apprehension and hesitation regarding the adoption of EVs and the shift from traditional petrol-fuelled vehicles.

Freddie Chew, General Manager of CDG ENGIE, acknowledges that the EV scene is still a nascent market and that people may have concerns about EVs. He hopes that as more charging points are deployed and additional phases are introduced, people will become more comfortable with adopting EVs as their primary mode of transportation.

To date, CDG ENGIE has catered to approximately 30 per cent of EV drivers in Singapore and has been installing an average of 1.08 charging points daily.

Chew expressed that the partnership with YGT marks a significant milestone for CDG ENGIE. This partnership not only expands its presence in Singapore, but also extends across the border to promote green energy, sustainable mobility, and continuous innovation toward a net-zero nation.

Higher adoption rate of EVs will not only prosper with like-minded partners coming together to integrate our solutions. We also have to constantly invest in a power management system that enables us to manage power distributions within the buildings and our chargers so that the chargers can add unused power capacity to charge the EVs despite limited power. This is one example of how we innovate.

We would not stop there, but will continue to build our infrastructure and network so that EV charging becomes a way of living.

Barclay shared similar ambitions for this partnership, stating that this is just the beginning of a transition towards a greener future and that over 10,000 electric cars have been sold in Malaysia above the Zero Emission Vehicle Association of Malaysia’s prediction of 2,200 electric cars sold in 2023.

Both companies have expressed their ambitions to expand their charging network to a total of 8,000 points by 2030, with 5,000 in Singapore and 3,000 in Malaysia. Speaking to Vulcan Post, Chew revealed that CDG ENGIE is making progress towards this goal and aims to achieve 1,700 charging points by 2025.

Our partnership marks the starting point, not an ending point. It starts the great growth of the great disruption, and I think that partnership is what will make it possible to accelerate EV [adoption].

Featured Image Credit: Yinson GreenTech