Made in Singapore: Electric taxis designed to reduce urban pollution and promote sustainable mobility

SINGAPORE — “Normally now I would say fasten your seatbelt because this is the law. We try to stay out of trouble as much as we can,” jokes TUM CREATE’s* research associate Felix Röemer. He is one of the many researchers at Singapore’s Nanyang Technology University (NTU) brought together to create EVA — an electric car designed, developed and made in Singapore to be used as our city’s future taxis.

Before the team started on EVA, they conducted a survey and found that the highest frequency of passengers per taxi was two, which is why the EVA is only a two-seater at back. Fold down the passenger-side front seat to reveal a built-in child seat for children between the ages of nine months to three years. There is also passenger seat cooling that draws air and moisture away from hot and sticky behinds.

Yet while automotive digital technology has traditionally focused on optimising the vehicle’s internal functions, attention is now turning to developing the car’s ability to connect with the outside world and enhance the in-car experience of the passenger.

“The taxi customer brings his or her own mobile phone, while entering the taxi, he or she can shortly tap on the armrest. This will automatically start an app on the phone,” says Röemer. This app will allow the passenger to wirelessly control climate and audio settings. Upon reaching the passenger’s final destination, the app will automatically settle the bill by charging it to the customer’s credit card.

This is the connected car — a vehicle able to optimise its own operation and maintenance as well as the convenience and comfort of passengers using onboard sensors and Internet connectivity. “We want to emphasise the passenger’s experience. For the driver it feels more or less like a normal vehicle. But for the taxi company, they will save a lot of money on gas and maintenance. Because EVs are more or less maintenance-free,” explains Röemer.

“Our focus is not on the drivability of this vehicle,” says Dr. Thomas Aulig who was our test driver, and is the corporate director of TUM CREATE. “We focus on battery, power supply, power storage, charging of battery, air condition and the infotainment system,” he elaborates.

Current EVs typically take several hours to charge, but this only covers a limited range of around 100km. Due to long recharge times, EV drivers have to contend with extended downtime, making EVs ineffective candidates for taxis. EVA however, solves this limitation by only requiring 15 minutes of recharge to cover a realistic 200km range. With short recharge times, taxi drivers can quickly recharge in time for their next shift.

“Do you have any doubt of the drivability of this vehicle as a passenger?” Aulig asks us toward the end of the joyride in the confines of CREATE’s campus. Although still very much a prototype, the core functionality of EVA is clear: To replace fuel-burning taxis with electric-powered ones without compromising on the comfort and safety of the driver and his or her passengers.

“There are about 32,000 taxis in Singapore. They form three per cent of the total car population,” says project officer Raymond Khoo. “By replacing existing taxis we can reduce well to wheel carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent, this figure will further improve if we move towards a more renewable energy source.” 

* TUM CREATE (Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise) is a joint research programme between Technische Universität München (TUM) in Germany and Nanyang Technological University, and is funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF).