360 more electric buses to hit the roads in biggest purchase by LTA

Contracts for charging systems also awarded as part of efforts to overhaul public bus fleet

- Kok Yufeng Correspondent

A total of 360 new electric buses will be added to the public bus fleet here, after the Land Transport Authority (LTA) awarded contracts worth $166.4 million to two companies in the biggest purchase of its kind.

To support the roll-out of the new battery-powered vehicles, another two contracts worth $46.1 million were also awarded for the deployment of charging systems at bus depots currently being built in Sengkang West, East Coast and Gali Batu.

This latest purchase will take the total number of public buses running on batteries here to 420, which is about 7 per cent of the current overall fleet.

LTA had earlier bought 60 electric buses in 2018 for about $50 million as part of a pilot scheme to test the new technology. At the end of 2022, there were 5,847 public buses in all.

The awarding of the new contracts is part of the Government's efforts to overhaul Singapore's public bus fleet so that half of them will run on batteries by 2030.

"More commuters will get to enjoy cleaner, quieter rides," said Acting Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat, who announced the purchase of the new buses on Nov 25.

He said electrification of the public bus fleet is an important part of reducing emissions from the land transport sector, which currently accounts for 15 per cent of the carbon dioxide Singapore produces.