If you drive in Singapore, you have probably seen — or sat in — the Cnergy queue. The budget petrol brand, owned by Union Gas Holdings, sells 95-octane at about S$2.41 per litre, roughly a dollar cheaper than Shell or SPC. At its Dunman Road station in Katong, lines of 15 or more cars regularly spill onto the road, blocking buses and frustrating residents. More than half of Cnergy's customers are private-hire drivers, and membership has grown about 10 per cent since rising fuel costs pushed more drivers to seek out the cheapest pump in town.

EV drivers do not queue on public roads for their energy. But they are doing the same thing — planning errands and shopping trips around the locations where charging costs the least. And unlike a petrol station, these spots let you browse IKEA or grab lunch while your battery fills up.

The EV Driver's Cnergy

The parallel is straightforward. Petrol drivers will detour across town and idle for 15 minutes to save a dollar per litre. EV drivers, meanwhile, have quietly mapped the charging spots where rates sit well below the market average — and where there is something to do while they wait.

Public charging prices in Singapore vary widely. According to a Ministry of Transport parliamentary reply, the median rate at HDB carparks is about S$0.66/kWh, while private commercial carparks average S$0.74/kWh. Major operators like SP Group charge S$0.698/kWh for DC and S$0.600/kWh for AC. Against that backdrop, a handful of retail destinations have emerged as the EV equivalent of the cheapest pump in town.

IKEA Alexandra: The S$0.45 AC Sweet Spot

IKEA Alexandra operates Charge+ AC chargers at S$0.45/kWh — 22 kW units available from 10am to 10pm daily. That is among the lowest public AC rates in Singapore, undercutting SP Group's AC rate by 25 per cent and sitting well below the HDB median.

The maths is simple. Charging a typical 60 kWh battery from near-empty at IKEA costs roughly S$27. The same charge at SP Group's DC rate would run about S$42 — a saving of around S$15 per session. Do that weekly and you are looking at close to S$780 a year back in your pocket. That advantage widens further as petrol prices past S$3 per litre drive up running costs for ICE vehicles.

At 22 kW, a full AC charge takes about three hours. That is enough time to navigate the IKEA showroom, have the meatballs, and load up a KALLAX. For EV owners who treat charging as background activity rather than a dedicated stop, the dwell time is a feature, not a flaw. For the full Queenstown-Alexandra charging landscape, see our local charger guide.

Great World City: Singapore's Largest Charging Hub

Singapore's largest EV charging hub now houses Singapore's largest single-site public EV charging hub — 55 chargers in total, including 20 ultra-fast 480 kW DC units (Huawei), 12 units at 180 kW DC, and 23 AC chargers at 22 kW.

The current promotional rates are S$0.600/kWh for DC and S$0.545/kWh for AC, inclusive of GST. The DC rate undercuts SP Group's benchmark by about 14 per cent, while the AC rate is competitive with most commercial carpark chargers. Drivers spending S$20 or more on charging also receive bonus Carpark$ credits through the Great Rewards app — a promotion running until 31 March 2026.

With DC charging at 180 kW or 480 kW, a usable top-up takes 20 to 30 minutes — enough for a coffee run or a quick lap of the mall. The sheer number of chargers also means less risk of arriving to find every bay occupied, a common frustration at smaller installations.

A Different Kind of Queue

The behaviour driving both phenomena is the same: Singaporean drivers will go out of their way for cheaper energy. The difference is that EV charging turns waiting time into productive time. Nobody browses a furniture store while their petrol pumps.

Singapore's EV charging network is still expanding toward the government's target of 60,000 charging points by 2030 — up from roughly 15,300 installed as of late 2024, of which about 7,100 are publicly accessible. As that network grows, EV charging prices expected to rise from April 2026 — though competition between operators should push rates down further over time. For now, though, the savvy EV driver already knows where to go.

The Cnergy queue is not going away. But if you have already made the switch to electric, your version of the queue comes with aircon, a shopping trolley, and no exhaust fumes.