SINGAPORE - Two Singapore companies offering mobile charging for electric vehicles (EVs) have been given the green light to do so for four years as part of trials.

With the go-ahead from the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Power-Up Tech will be allowed to deploy up to 10 mobile charging systems to juice up EVs including vans and buses.

Beecharge Innovation Group will dispatch up to eight sets of mobile charging systems to support providers of shared EVs and commercial fleet operators.

These companies have power packs and EV chargers that are loaded onto vehicles, allowing them to offer an on-demand charging service to EV drivers with no convenient access to a permanent charger.

The LTA, in a statement on June 11, also said it issued permits to two other outfits to test battery charging and swopping systems for electric heavy goods vehicles over four years.

All four trials will start gradually in the second half of 2024.

Power-Up began offering its mobile charging service in April 2022. Without LTA’s approval for the four-year trial, its service cannot continue operating after June 7.

This follows a provision in the law governing EV charging that took effect on Dec 8, 2023, giving mobile charging operators that existed before six months to continue operating.

In its current form, the national charging standard, called Technical Reference 25 (TR 25), does not cover mobi...