Gogoro, MO Batteries to trial electric bike battery swap and charge stations under LTA sandbox

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) held today (September 2) the third edition of its Land Transport Industry Day at the Singapore EXPO Max Atria, bringing together leaders across the land transport industry to exchange views and share best practices.

The revised national EV charging standard released in March 2022, Technical Reference (TR) 25:2022, includes standards for newer charging technologies such as battery swapping for motorcycles.

To assess the potential of such technologies, LTA announced that it will approve two electric motorcycle and battery swapping regulatory sandbox applications by Taiwanese company Gogoro and Singapore-headquartered MO Batteries respectively.

Gogoro will partner Jardine Cycle & Carriage (JC&C) to conduct trials using their electric motorcycles and battery swap stations for last-mile deliveries. Two Battery Charge and Swap Stations will be deployed, allowing depleted electric motorcycle batteries to be swapped with fully charged ones in a matter of seconds.  

Meanwhile, MO Batteries will work with SingPost and Prosegur to conduct pilots using their electric motorcycles, as well as a combination of centralised charging and battery swap and storage.

“MO Batteries will charge detachable electric motorcycle batteries on their premises, and deliver these fully charged batteries to Battery Store and Swap Stations located at their partners’ premises,” said Minister for Transport Mr S Iswaran, who graced the event today.

“With the growing range of charging solutions, we hope to encourage the adoption of more electric motorcycle models in Singapore, and LTA is continuing its engagement with several industry players on more of such pilot sandboxes.”

The trials will be implemented in the next few weeks and will run for 12 months.

Preparing S’pore workforce for EV transition

“This [electric vehicle] transition will bring opportunities and jobs for our workers, who will also need to be equipped with new skillsets. And while the journey will take many years, we need to start investing in skills upgrading now,” said Mr Iswaran.

As such, LTA also launched today new skills training courses as part of a broader effort to build a pipeline of skilled workers equipped to work on the safety and maintenance of electric vehicles.

This effort was informed by the Land Transport Jobs and Workforce Study (LTJWS), which serves as the Jobs Transformation Map for the land transport sector.

This was developed by LTA with support from Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the Ministry of Manpower, with the objective of understanding the impact of technology and social trends on the future needs and skills of the land transport workforce.

It provides high level recommendations for upskilling and training a local workforce, for the use of our industry and technological partners.

With the help of insights from the LTJWS, LTA has launched the National Electric Vehicle Specialist Safety (NESS) certification in partnership with SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG). This certification will be recognised under the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) national credential system.

Certificate holders would be equipped with skills and knowledge to safely conduct EV and hybrid electric vehicle servicing in a high voltage environment. These industry-recognised certifications will pave the way for automotive technicians to subsequently receive further specialised training in electric vehicles.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic and ITE are the first training providers to introduce new courses with the NESS certification, and more training providers are expected to offer NESS certification courses in the future.

Information on these training courses and registration details will be uploaded progressively and can be found on the respective schools’ websites as well as on MySkillsFuture portal. Up to 70 per cent of the course fees will be subsidised by SSG through the WSQ certification framework.

LTA has also partnered WSG to launch a new Career Conversion Programme (CCP) for Sustainability Professionals (EV Specialists) to upskill the workforce in EV maintenance roles.

Under this CCP, companies will receive up to six months’ salary support for eligible employees when they undergo structured On-the-Job Training and the NESS certification. Interested companies may approach WSG for more information and submit their applications.

Featured Image Credit: Toshiki Sasazu via Nikkei Asia