SINGAPORE - The race to get companies to switch to electric vans is heating up, with ComfortDelGro Engineering importing a new Chinese brand for sale or lease by the fourth quarter of 2023.
The subsidiary of transport giant ComfortDelGro will be the exclusive distributor of commercial electric vehicles manufactured by ChangAn KuaYue (KYC).
ComfortDelGro said it is targeting to sell about 100 electric vans by end-2024 through appointed dealerships here before raising the target over time.
The KYC Star V7 electric van, which will be the first KYC model to be introduced here, will be available in both cargo carrying and passenger vehicle forms.
In March, then ComfortDelGro chairman Lim Jit Poh said the group was looking at distributing electric vehicles.
ComfortDelGro spokesman Grace Wu said the company will appoint dealers to sell the vehicles instead of setting up its own showrooms, and partner leasing companies to make KYC vans available for hire.
This is a familiar approach for commercial vehicle importers.
BYD – the best-selling brand among electric vans in the first five months of 2023, with 239 registrations – is distributed by ST Engineering through a network of dealers. The vans can also be leased through motor dealers.
EVCo, which is a subsidiary of SMRT Corporation, offers electric vans from Chinese brand Shineray through leasing or sold through appointed dealers.
In the first five months of 2023, EVCo registered 197 units of Shineray electric vans, all of them in March, before the incentives for cleaner emission commercial vehicles were reduced from April.
Shineray is the second-most popular brand of electric vans so far in 2023, overtaking other electric van brands like Citroen and DFSK that have been here longer.
Besides Shineray, EVCo also offers leases for different electric vans from brands like Maxus and Toyota.
Electric commercial vehicles represented 52.47 per cent of all light commercial vehicles registered between January and May 2023, continuing a trend seen in the first quarter of 2023.
ComfortDelGro is familiar with the motor vehicle business – it has distributed Volvo buses in Singapore since 2000. Before the merger with land transport firm DelGro Corp in 2003, Comfort Group represented passenger car brands, which included Maserati, Perodua, Peugeot and Seat.
