[sustran] fwd: Honda electric carsharing scheme in Singapore

[Paul Barter]

   Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 11:26:26 +0800
   From: "Lai Meng" <s023676 at income.com.sg>
Subject: Honda to start new electric carsharing scheme in Singapore

Honda Motor announced yesterday that they will start a new electric
carsharing scheme in Singapore. This is interesting and good for carsharing
since the added publicity and interest can only be positive.

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TWO-SEATER electric share cars will be on Singapore roads by the
middle of this year.

The Straits Times, 28 March 2001, Singapore.
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,1870,32777,00.html?
----------------------------------------------------

Electric cars expected on the roads by June. Called City Pals, they
will be brought in by Honda, which will set up a club, whose members
can rent the cars

The Honda City Pal is a fully electric car that wil be available for
hourly and daily rental.

Motorists will be able to rent them to zip around town.

Looking more like a golf cart, the City Pal, as it is called, will be
brought in by Japan's Honda Motor. It will have a top speed of 110
kmh and will run 130 km on a single battery charge.

Details such as how many cars will be brought in and where they will
be stationed will be released closer to June.

Honda plans to set up a club, whose members will be able to rent the
cars by the hour or day, using a personalised identification card,
which doubles as a car key.

It plans to install charging bays, mainly in the shopping and office
areas downtown, where the cars can be plugged in to recharge their
batteries.

Charging bays for the electric City Pal cars will be automated. After
a is parked, an electronic "arm" can be plugged into vehicle to
charge, with a top speed of 110 kmh. The charging bays will be set up
in the shopping and office areas downtown mainly.

Honda said on Monday that it set up a wholly-owned subsidiary here
last month with $4 million in capital to carry out research-and-
development work on the Intelligent Community Vehicle System or ICVS.

The company - Honda ICVS Singapore - will test the electric-car
system and study how feasible it is for full-scale commercial
operations here.

Singapore was chosen because land constraints here make the sharing
of a common pool of non-polluting vehicles an attractive option, said
Honda.

The project also has the support of the Economic Development Board
and the Land Transport Authority here.

On the location of the charging bays and cars, the general manager of
Asian Honda Motor, Mr Hiroshi Mikajiri, said: 'We are looking at
places where there is a lot of commuter movement throughout the day,
and not just during the morning and evening rush hours.

'But we hope to start the system in at least three locations.'

Honda's announcement comes three months after the Government
announced road-tax rebates of 10 per cent for hybrid cars and 20 per
cent for electric ones, in a move to encourage the use of environment-
friendly vehicles here.

Outside of Singapore, Honda has established similar shared electric-
car projects - in Tochigi, Japan, in 1998 and at the University of
California at Riverside in 1999.

In Tochigi, users check out electric cars and bicycles to get around
a 646-ha motor-racing complex.

At the California university, about 200 students and lecturers share
15 electric vehicles when travelling within the campus grounds.