13 Jun 2019
[This article was first published on www.businesstimes.com.sg]
Kia's Tesla is now in town.
On Wednesday, Cycle & Carriage (C&C) Kia launched the Niro EV, a car that runs on battery power alone.
The five-seat, five-door, crossover car is Kia's first electric vehicle (EV) for the Singapore market, as well as the first from C&C. The company also handles Citroën, DS Automobiles, Mitsubishi and Mercedes-Benz.
The Niro EV has a 64 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that can power it for 455km on a single charge, which makes it one of the best-performing EVs here in terms of range.
By comparison, the BMW i3 S, a smaller electric car, has a range of 200km.
A 204 horsepower motor propels the Kia to 100km/h in just 7.9 seconds, and like many electric cars, it is so quiet that it has a sound generator to warn pedestrians of its presence.
A 100kW fast charger takes 54 minutes to juice its battery up from 0 to 80 per cent.
C&C is pricing the car at S$183,999 with Certificate Of Entitlement. The figure reveals just how expensive the battery technology is, given that the petrol-electric hybrid version of the Niro is S$61,000 cheaper.
The launch of this Kia comes with a twist: For now, C&C is inviting only fleet and corporate customers to test-drive the car. The company says it will focus on everyday consumers in the third quarter of the year.
C&C's deputy director for multi-franchise operations Dawn Pan told The Business Times: "At the moment, retail customers will not be looking at EVs. We are aiming at fleet operators who want greater savings in running costs."
The company, citing a statement from SP Group, said operating an EV costs less than half what it costs to run a comparable combustion-engine car. The power grid operator is building a network of charging stations and plans to have as many as 1,000 up and running around the island by the end of next year.
When that happens, Singapore could be in the strange position of having more EV charging points than EVs.
Figures from the Land Transport Authority show that battery-powered cars are still relatively scarce.
As at the end of May, there were 796 EVs on the road - the figure includes private cars and rental cars - and 133 pure electric taxis, versus an overall population of 642,539 cars and taxis.
But EV sales are on the rise, thanks in no small part to the type of fleet sales that C&C is hoping to clinch with the Niro EV.
Ride-hailing company Grab added 200 units of the Hyundai Kona EV to its fleet this year. The combination of a relatively high purchase price and low running costs makes EVs better suited to corporate customers, said Ms Pan.
She added that C&C is targeting rental companies who supply cars to drivers for Grab and Go-Jek, another ride-hailing company. The Niro EV is also meant to provide something of a "halo effect" for Kia here.
"We recognise that the EV market will take some time to grow in Singapore, with the current infrastructure and tax structure. However, the purpose of introducing an EV is more to brand Kia as a reliable manufacturer and one poised for electrification."
In launching the Niro EV, South Korea's Kia becomes the sixth car brand to put an EV on sale in Singapore, not counting Teslas, which are parallel-imported.
Germany's Audi plans to launch the e-tron, its first EV, in Singapore this year; Mercedes-Benz and Porsche plan to introduce their own battery-powered cars here in 2021. In April, China's Geely threw a global launch party for its EV-only Geometry brand in Singapore.
Slowly but steadily, car makers are hoping to convert the Lion City into the li-ion city.
[Source article: businesstimes.com.sg/transport/kias-ev-sales-go-from-zero-to-niro]
