SINGAPORE'S ELECTRIC CARS PROGRAMME

Singapore : Singapore launched yesterday its first large-scale electric car-sharing programme-

Through which the land-scare city-state hopes to provide commuters with more transport options and steer them away from the need to buy their own cars.

The service, which will be run by Blue SG, a unit of France's Bollore Group, is a part of Singapore's plans to reduce the number of vehicles on its roads and encourage the use of  public transport.

The city-state one of the world's most expensive places to own a car, said in October it would not allow any net growth in its car population from February next year citing  the scarcity of land and the push to develop its public transport system.

Singapore, with well maintained roads and relatively smooth traffic conditions, has also been encouraging the testing of various self-driving technologies.

Bollore operates similar electric vehicle sharing plans in other cities, including Paris, Bordeaux, and Lyon in France, Indianapolis and Los Angeles in the United States and Torino in Italy.

Already about  80 cars and  32 charging stations  are available for public use, BlueSG said in a statement yesterday.

It aims to roll out a fleet of 1,000 electric vehicles and 2,000 charging points by 2020.