The Singapore government has signed up with the Bosch Group, a provider of eMobility solutions, to conduct a test bed for an electric vehicle charging infrastructure around the city-state.

Mr Lawrence Wong, Chief Executive of the Energy Market Authority said, “We are very happy with the appointment of Bosch as the infrastructure service provider for Singapore’s electric vehicle test bed programme. eMobility solutions are becoming increasingly attractive around the world, and Singapore is well placed to serve as a “living laboratory” for such solutions to be researched, developed and tested. By doing so, we hope not only to develop sustainable energy solutions for our own needs, but also to generate more opportunities for research and innovation, leading to new products and services that can be exported regionally and globally. We look forward to working with Bosch in shaping the future of electric vehicles”.

Bosch’s “eMobility Solution” is a comprehensive service platform for electric vehicles. It features charging stations and a web-based application with an integrated communication system. It is based on Bosch’s software technology, such as the market-leading Business Rules Technology Platform (Visual Rules)*, which is the foundation for innovative business models. The project will commence in March 2011 and is intended to run until 2016.

With this project, Singapore is amongst the first cities in the world to lead the way in test-bedding an ecologically sustainable and affordable transportation system of the future, paving the way for Singapore to establish an early presence in eMobility.

As a global market leader in automotive technology, Bosch believes that the future of electric vehicles will be shaped with innovative solutions. The company is confident that electric vehicles will continuously gain market share, as technological solutions for both vehicles and infrastructure are further developed.

Whilst Bosch is already devoting substantial research efforts to electric power trains and batteries, it is also supporting Singapore’s eMobility test bed via its newly setup software and systems unit in Singapore, Innovations Software Technology.

Innovations Software Technology’s strength is to develop advanced, modular software solutions that can be customised for a variety of enterprises. Their flexible design offers a comfortable information platform for the drivers of electric vehicles and to network operators, it provides the ability to remotely manage charging stations, including software update, encryption, metering, billing and surveillance. There is also a smart grid control function for utilities to monitor demand and energy distribution. In addition, the open system enables easy integration with other software solutions for supplementary business models and information services which can be easily interconnected.

Together with local partners SingTel and Greenlots, this project marks Bosch’s foray into developing urban infrastructure system solutions to achieve an integrated infrastructure for electric vehicles in a megacity environment for the first time in Asia Pacific.