SINGAPORE – A new taxi company with an all-electric fleet is set to hit the road in two months’ time.

HDT Singapore Taxi said on Monday (July 25) that it plans to roll out operations in the first week of September, after getting approval from the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

The firm is expected to start with more than 10 vehicles, before progressively ramping up its fleet to 100 by the first quarter of 2017.

Its managing director James Ng told The Straits Times that fares will be be “competitive and tagged to the market rate”, adding that more details will be announced when the Public Transport Council has approved its pricing structure.

Registered as a company here in April, HDT Singapore Taxi will join a market with five other taxi companies which run a total of more than 28,000 cabs here.

The e-taxi trial ties in with the Government’s plans to widen the testing of the viability of electric vehicles (EV), from individual corporate usage to fleet-based, shared-car operations.

A LTA spokesman said: “HDT will run a fleet of 100 EVs commercially as part of an eight-year trial, so that the relevant agencies can collect the necessary data under real-life conditions to study the feasibility of EV fleet business models.”

HDT Singapore Taxi will use electric vehicles from BYD (Build Your Dreams), a Shenzhen-based auto and battery manufacturer that has United States investment guru Warren Buffett as a shareholder.

It will use BYD’s e6 model, which has a range of about 350km, and a battery that requires only 90 minutes to be fully charged.

While other taxi operators lease out their taxis to hirers, HDT Singapore Taxi will be the first to employ their cabbies full-time.

This article was first published on July 25, 2016.
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It was the wee hours of Sunday (Jul 24) morning when a woman awoke to find a stranger in her Eunos Crescent bedroom.

According to Shin Min Daily News, the man had broken into the home by climbing up from the first floor, and entered the second storey flat through a window which had no grilles.

When he saw that the 27-year-old woman had seen him, the man choked her and hit her on the face.

Shin Min reported that the victim suffered injuries and scratches on her face and was hospitalised as a result.

The woman, who lives with her 76-year-old grandmother, reportedly lost her credit card and mobile phone to the burglar. He is also alleged to haven taken $500 cash from the elderly woman’s purse.

The younger woman’s boyfriend called the police after learning about what happened when she called him for help after the incident.

Her grandmother was reportedly sound asleep throughout the ordeal, and knew nothing of the incident until the police showed up.

Police later arrested a 28-year-old suspect after he answered a call made to the stolen phone.

ljessica@sph.com.sg

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s zoo said Monday it will send two manatees to Guadeloupe as part of the world’s first repopulation programme for the animal, which became extinct on the French Caribbean island in the early 20th century.

Males Kai, seven, and Junior, six, will be the first manatees – which are also known as sea cows – on the island since the species died out.

Another 13 manatees of both genders from zoos around the world will follow the pair to the Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin, a 15,000 hectare (37,000 acre) protected bay, the Asian city-state’s zoo operator said.

Any offspring from the group will be reintroduced into the wild as part of the repopulation programme.

The species is listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, with the West Indian variety becoming extinct in the Caribbean due to overhunting.

During the 30-hour journey, the mammals, from the River Safari park next to Singapore’s main zoo, will be placed on canvases in custom-built open-top crates lined with thick sponge and periodically sprayed with water to keep their skin moist.

“We have been very successful in breeding manatees in our care for the past 20 years. We are very happy that this success will now contribute to restocking part of the species’ historic range in the Caribbean where it has been extinct for the past century,” Cheng Wen-Haur, deputy chief executive of zoo operator Wildlife Reserves Singapore, said in a statement.

A gentle creature which can grow to up to 4.5 metres (15 feet) in length, the manatee’s natural habitats are warm coastal waters, mangrove swamps and estuaries where they graze on plants.

Baby manatee abandoned from birth becomes animal icon

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