Founded in Singapore, riding overseas: Why local electric motorcycle firms are looking abroad
Challenges such as limited battery capacity and high prices have made electric motorcycles a hard sell to the everyday rider in Singapore.
Singapore's electric motorcycle industry is seeking growth opportunities overseas due to limited battery capacity, high prices, and a small domestic market. Currently, only 433 electric motorcycles are registered in Singapore, accounting for less than 0.2% of the total motorcycle population. In contrast, the country boasts over 69,000 electric cars, representing more than 10% of the car population.
Several local firms have turned their attention to expanding into countries with larger motorcycle populations, such as Indonesia and Thailand. Kilats, an electric two-wheeler firm, began operations in Indonesia in 2024 and has already deployed almost 700 electric motorcycles to ride-sharing platform Grab. The company plans to expand within Indonesia, enter Thailand by the end of 2024, and launch in Vietnam and the Philippines by 2027.
Charged Asia, another local electric motorcycle company, has generated all of its revenue from Indonesia and aims to deploy over 300,000 motorcycles across the region in the next few years. Leo Electric initially explored deployments in Nigeria and the Middle East but faced infrastructure and geopolitical challenges. The company is now working with Kilats to introduce an electric motorcycle model in Singapore that can plug into existing car charging infrastructure.
Despite these expansion efforts, battery-swapping technology may not be feasible for electric motorcycles in Singapore. The high speeds at which motorcycles operate on Singapore's efficient road and highway infrastructure would cause swappable batteries to drain too quickly, making the swapping process impractical. Moreover, the relatively low ridership of electric motorcycles in Singapore makes it challenging to build a viable swapping network.
Written by urgent.news from CNA - Singapore's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
