Electromobility shift in Southeast Asia to accelerate the future
The shift towards electro mobility in Southeast Asia is currently underway, with some projecting that it will accelerate in the future as electrical infrastructures develop and more electric vehicle (EV) models are made available in the region.
In Deloitte’s Future of Electromobility in Southeast Asia podcast last year, Deloitte’s Future of Mobility Solution Centre director Andrey Berdichevskiy opined that Southeast Asia has the advantage over other regions in that, the former can learn from earlier developments and also adapt newer and more advanced technologies.
“I have worked on the topic of electrification across Europe, US and China and the main thing we have as an advantage in Southeast Asia is that we can learn from the developments earlier on and also adapt newer and more advanced technologies, both on the hardware and software side,” Berdichevskiy said.
“So for example, the topic of having a much higher maturity of fast charging right now, when the Southeast Asian markets are entering and starting to build up infrastructure or much-advanced solutions for public transport charging such as bus charging.
“There are also optimisation platforms that can help us to leapfrog in the region. For example, there can be some variable decisions to make. Maybe there are some parts of the city where I can just offer fastcharging infrastructure because I believe this is the future.
“What I think is important is to go much more into simulation approaches and help to scale up the infrastructure in Southeast Asia parallel to the demand.”
He observed that in other markets, a land grab approach where a lot of infrastructures has been built in advance without securing the utilisation of charging stations and that led to a lot of sunk costs and a lot of working capital where the return on investments was not there to justify further expansion of infrastructure.
“So rather than putting all the investments at once, I would see a gradual scaleup of infrastructure which requires one to understand also where the demand is coming from. On the one hand, these demands have to be satisfied.
“The people adapting to the charging stations, which bus routes should I take, which should I electrify first and what will be my financial impact?
“How can I improve the fleet management in terms of allocating
the vehicles to the charging stations and increasing the high utilisation of electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure – these are the questions where simulation approaches and the clear orchestration of the charging station through data can help.”
Meanwhile, Electric Vehicle Association of Singapore president Terence Siew opined that electrification will be happening at different rates for different countries and the reason for this is because of the different geographies, the different electrical infrastructure and the different availability of EV models.
“Having said that, when you are operating in a certain country, say, Southeast Asia, what works for your country might not necessarily be easily scaled to your neighbouring countries,” Siew said.
“On this point, based on the readiness for EV charging infrastructure, an important transition technology is in the form of plug-in hybrids which should be dominant in many parts of Southeast Asia due to the unavailability of a reliable charging network.
“This means that when ecosystem players are operating in this space (Southeast Asia), they need to ensure that the charging infrastructure has to be catered to the different kinds of EVs – be it full electric, plug-in hybrids or buses or fleet vehicles. And also to improve the overall public awareness of charging infrastructure that is available.”
As for how soon can consumers in Southeast Asia expect a widespread shift towards electromobility, Berdichevskiy believed that the shift is already happening, with the slow but steady introduction of new models.
“We see more and more tenders coming towards bus electrification. It starts with a small number of buses – I think about 60 buses right now in Singapore – but there will be more to come in the future and we will only see bigger shifts happening with the introduction of new models,” Berdichevskiy noted.
“So, a lot of manufacturers globally have already committed to the vision to electrify major parts of their portfolio, even up to the whole portfolio with electric cars.
“And when the consumers start having the choice, we will also see more and more adoption. The incentives have to be in place and then the economics will play out. But I think it’s also because when we talk about the consumer, the emotional aspect of a vehicle or mobility purchase is also there.”
He added that as we see more variety (of EVs) catering to different tastes, the electrification agenda will also advance.
“What’s so exciting about the electric cars is that you have a lot of freedom in designing those as you can separate the top hat – the upper part which is used as a driver cell – from the lower part, the skateboard.
“With that, you can also save costs. So, I believe the shift is already happening and it will only accelerate in the future and I’m very much looking forward to it.”