BlueSG (stylised as blueSG) is a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an company providing

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

car sharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...

and electric car charging services. Announced in September 2017, the company, a subsidiary of Goldbell, launched the service in December of the same year, with 30 charging stations and 80 all-electric

Bolloré Bluecar The Bolloré Bluecar is a small four-seat, three-door electric car supplied by Bolloré, designed by Pininfarina and manufactured by Cecomp in Bairo, Italy, under a joint venture owned by Bolloré and Pininfarina called Véhicule Électriques Pini ...

for public use on a paid subscription basis. On 5 February 2021, it was announced that BlueSG was to be acquired by Goldbell Group, a Singaporean commercial vehicles and industrial equipment distribution and leasing company, with the acquisition completed in October 2021. The company's charging stations were also sold and acquired by

TotalEnergies TotalEnergies SE is a French Multinational corporation, multinational integrated energy and List of oil exploration and production companies, petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven Big Oil, supermajor oil companies. Its businesses ...

. As of December 2020, the company had 374 charging stations located across Singapore and a fleet of 667 cars.

History

Bolloré Bluecar Bluecity car share in London 001

In June 2016,

Bolloré Bolloré SE () is a French conglomerate headquartered in Puteaux, on the western outskirts of Paris, France. Founded in 1822, the company has interests in Vivendi, international freight forwarding, oil storage and pipelines in France, solid state ...

signed an agreement with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the

Economic Development Board The Economic Development Board (EDB) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Government of Singapore that plans and executes strategies to sustain Singapore as a leading global hub for business and investment. His ...

to develop an electric car-sharing programme. On 27 September 2017, BlueSG announced with LTA to launch Singapore's first large scale electric car sharing programme, with the service's electric car supplied by Bolloré. The company also opened their Asia-Pacific headquarters for its e-mobility, energy management and system integration business for the region. Bolloré used to operate several similar electric car-sharing services such as

Autolib' Autolib' was an electric car sharing service which was inaugurated in Paris, France, in December 2011. It closed on 31 July 2018. It was operated by the Bolloré industry and complemented the city's bike sharing system, Velib', which was set u ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, BlueIndy in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

and

Bluecity Bluecity was a London-based company providing electric car-sharing services, starting from 26 April 2017 to 10 February 2020. The cars provided by the service were Bolloré Bluecars by the Bolloré group. Fleet The service used the all-electr ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, but failed to achieve scalability and has since ceased to operate in these 3 cities. Construction of the charging stations began at the end of September 2017 and in December 2017, the service was officially opened to the public with 30 charging stations and 80 cars located throughout the island. BlueSG planned to expand the service to offer 2,000 charging points in 500 charging locations, with 400 charging points open for public use and 1,000

electric car An electric car, battery electric car, or all-electric car is an automobile that is propelled by one or more electric motors, using only energy stored in batteries. Compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, electric cars are quie ...

s deployed by 2020. In January 2018, within the first 3 weeks of operations, over 3000 members signed up for the service, with 5000 rentals completed. In December 2018, it was announced that BlueSG will open its charging stations to privately owned electric vehicles from the first quarter of 2019. The charging service was officially launched in April 2019, with a total of 25 charging stations open to privately owned electric vehicles on a yearly subscription basis.

Acquisition by Goldbell and TotalEnergies

In February 2021, Goldbell Group, a Singaporean company, announced it had acquired BlueSG from Bolloré and the acquisition was finalised by October of the same year, after being in discussions since June 2020. According to Singapore's

Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Singapore. ACRA is the regulator of business registration, financial reporting, public accountants and corporate ser ...

, BlueSG has been in a deficit since its launch, with the company making a loss of S$9.3 million in 2019. After the acquisition was completed in October 2021, Goldbell would be investing around S$70 million in the company within the next 5 years to expand BlueSG's services and fleet, with plans to introduce different models of electric vehicles into its fleet and to set up a new research and development centre that will be developing new mobility technologies and algorithms and to expand the service regionally. On 28 July 2021, it was announced that the network of 1,500 BlueSG charging stations was sold to

, which would continue to operate and maintain the charging stations.

Operations and fleet

Anyone aged 21 years and above with a valid

driving license,

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...

driving license or an International driver's permit can sign up for the service through the BlueSG mobile application or their official website. Users can choose between 2 rental plans, with per minute fees of S$0.36 (increased from S$0.33 from 1 March 2021). An available car can be booked through the mobile application or at the charging station itself. A parking space can also be reserved through the application prior to returning the car to the charging station, or users can park at any available lot that is not already reserved. BlueSG introduced 2 rental packages on 1 October 2019, with the packages originally available for durations of 3 hours and 5 hours rentals respectively, which were only available from Monday to Friday. On 1 March 2021, with per minute fees increased to S$0.36, the prices for the rental packages was also revised and the 5 hour package was replaced with a 4 hours one instead, with the 3 hours package plan now available for use from Monday to Sunday, while the 4 hours plan is only available from Monday to Friday. The table below summaries the subscription types available, the subscription fees, pricing for the per minute rates and rental packages: ;Private EV charging service The BlueSG charging service was officially launched in April 2019, with users having to sign up for the charging services through BlueSG's official website and a yearly subscription fee will be charged in addition to per-minute charging fees. The table below summaries the subscription types available for the charging service:

Fleet

The service uses the all-electric

, which were adapted to suit Singapore's

left-hand traffic Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...

. It is a three-door

hatchback A hatchback is a car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to a cargo area. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second row seating, where the interior can be reconfigured to prioritize passenger or cargo volume. ...

with four seats and has a 30 kWh lithium metal polymer (LMP) battery, coupled to a

supercapacitor A supercapacitor (SC), also called an ultracapacitor, is a high-capacity capacitor, with a capacitance value much higher than other capacitors but with lower voltage limits. It bridges the gap between electrolytic capacitors and rechargeable ba ...

, that provides an

electric range An electric stove or electric range is a stove with an integrated electrical heating device to cook and bake. Electric stoves became popular as replacements for solid-fuel (wood or coal) stoves which required more labor to operate and maintain. S ...

of in urban use, and a maximum speed of .

Gallery

File:100 stations Bluesg Bluecar.jpg , Bluesg Bluecar with the 100 stations celebratory livery. File:Bluesg Bluecar Front 2018.jpg, Front view of the Bluecar. File:Bluesg 100 stations livery Bluecar.jpg, Bluesg Bluecars parked at a station. File:BlueSG cars at Ang Mo Kio CC station.jpg, Bluesg station in

Ang Mo Kio Ang Mo Kio is a planning area and residential town situated in the North-East of Singapore. Located approximately north of the Downtown Core district, Ang Mo Kio is the 3rd most populated planning area in the North-East Region and ranks 8th ...

References

External links

* {{Vehicle rental brands Carsharing Electric vehicles Transport in Singapore 2017 introductions 2017 establishments in Singapore Transport companies established in 2017 Transport companies of Singapore Singaporean brands