SP Group and Hyundai/Komoco tie up in Singapore to offer drivers of Hyundai Ioniq 5 EVs a pilot EV ownership/charge scheme with subscriptions for a lower initial cost

SINGAPORE – The future is not just electric, the future is in fact, subscriptions. Singapore sees its first electric vehicle (EV) related subscription plan in the form of the ‘E-Mobility Pilot’, which was announced recently by local power house SP Group in conjunction with Hyundai Motor Group, and Hyundai authorised distributor Komoco Motors.

CarBuyer understands that 50 units of the Ioniq 5 battery electric vehicle (BEV) were offered at special prices to buyers in exchange for participation in the programme for 60 months or five years, which includes contributing usage data. The model with the 72.6kWh battery pack was sold at at unspecified time earlier this year with rear-wheel drive at S$138,888 with COE, and all-wheel drive at S$168,888 with COE.

The prices are attention-grabbing as the Ioniq 5 is a new-gen BEV from Hyundai, and claims much improved performance over its current Kona and Ioniq BEVs, as detailed in our debut story on the car.

The relatively low prices are a result of the subscription – users pay a monthly fee for the five years their car is enrolled in the programme, and this offsets the initial cost of the car itself. The actual cost of the plan has not been revealed. At time of writing, both Hyundai/Komoco and SP Group have not commented on this aspect of the plan.

The E-Mobility Pilot allows owners to monitor their car’s and car’s battery status, while preventative maintenance and vehicle-to-vehicle recovery charging will be available.

The programme also includes three tiers of public charging credits at SP Group’s island-wide network of EV chargers/fast-chargers. This includes basic, standard, and premium tiers, for 60kWh, 180kWh, and 300kWh, per month, respectively. The 300kWh plan would allow users to recharge their Ioniq 5 four times for a total theoretical range of 1,920km.

SP Group’s Chief Executive Officer Mr. Stanley Huang said, “This strategic partnership is an important milestone for us to enable large-scale EV adoption through ensuring accessibility, convenience, and reliability for the EV community. The pilot will provide crucial driver insights to help us better understand and meet the needs of future EV adopters. This will allow us to design and develop EV infrastructure and smarter integrated solutions to support Singapore’s electrification journey.”

“Hyundai Motor Group is strengthening partnerships with various partners in Singapore, not only to promote innovation in the overall value chain of the automobile industry but also to introduce new mobility solutions that accelerate future mobility,” said Hong Bum Jung, Chief Executive Officer of Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICS). “Starting from the E-mobility pilot, we will create the diverse EV ecosystems that are designed by and built for Singapore.”


What the E-Mobility Pilot scheme offers individually is not new – both charging plans and remote monitoring services/recovery have been offered by BMW for quite some time in Singapore. However integrating all of this into one plan that factors into the price of the car itself is new territory.

Subscriptions aren’t also not new to the auto industry, with optional services being offered for many years in other countries notably the USA with schemes such as OnStar from General Motors, while Tesla offers a sub for its ‘full self-driving capability’ (though we do not recommend you use it, nor AutoPilot at this time) and other services.

In Singapore, both BMW and Mercedes-Benz offer subscriptions for their extended in-car services (which include over-the-air updates, extended navigation, car control and info from smartphone apps) BMW ConnectedDrive and Mercedes Me respectively, after three years’ of free initial service.