SP Mobility has offered to freeze EV charging prices at HDB carparks in the East region for three years in a bid to address competition concerns raised by Singapore's antitrust watchdog over its proposed acquisition of ChargEco operator Strides YTL.

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) said on Monday that SP Mobility's proposed commitments are now open for public consultation until 5pm on 13 April 2026. The regulator had flagged the deal as potentially anti-competitive because both SP Mobility and ChargEco operate EV charging points at HDB carparks within the same region — the only area where their concessions overlap.

A Safeguard Put to the Test

The overlap traces back to LTA's landmark 2022 tender, which awarded five operators the right to deploy at least 12,000 EV charging points across nearly 2,000 HDB carparks island-wide. A central design principle of that tender was competition: each region was deliberately assigned two operators to prevent any single company from controlling pricing.

In the East, those two operators were SP Mobility and ChargEco — the joint venture between Strides Mobility and YTL PowerSeraya. If CCS clears the acquisition, SP Mobility would become the sole HDB charger operator in the East, affecting residents in towns including Bedok, Tampines, and Pasir Ris.

CCS accepted the joint merger notification from SP Mobility and Strides YTL on 22 December 2025, and has since been assessing whether the deal would substantially lessen competition.

What SP Mobility Has Committed To

Under the proposed commitments, SP Mobility has pledged that EV charging prices at the parties' HDB chargers in the East would not rise above pre-acquisition levels for three years from the date of CCS's final decision. The only exception would be cost pass-throughs from regulators or factors beyond SP Mobility's control.

SP Mobility also committed that discounts or rebate schemes offered to drivers would not be applied in a discriminatory manner to disadvantage those charging in the East region specifically. The company would be required to notify CCS of any price adjustments at East HDB charging points during the commitment period.

These are significant concessions — but they come with an expiry date. Three years is a relatively short window in an EV market that Singapore expects to grow substantially. The Government's target of 60,000 charging points by 2030 means the bulk of infrastructure buildout is still ahead, and the competitive dynamics established now will shape pricing for years to come.

Growing Consolidation

The proposed deal also comes against a backdrop of consolidation in Singapore's charging sector. SP Mobility already absorbed 250 charging points from 63 former TotalEnergies locations after the French energy giant exited the local EV charging market last year. The company now operates more than 2,000 charging points across Singapore, describing itself as the nation's largest publicly accessible high-speed EV charging network.

SP Mobility's parent, SP Group, is also one of Singapore's largest electricity retailers — a vertical integration that gives the company a presence across the energy value chain, from power generation to the charger at your HDB carpark. For EV drivers navigating an already complex mix of charging networks and pricing structures, the question is whether fewer operators will mean less innovation and higher costs once price protections lapse.

Public Feedback Before 13 April

CCS is inviting anyone with views on the proposed commitments to submit feedback by 5pm on 13 April 2026. This is the first merger review in Singapore's nascent EV charging sector, and the outcome will set an important precedent for how competition is maintained as the market scales.

For EV owners in the East — and anyone watching how Singapore's charging infrastructure develops — the consultation is an opportunity to weigh in before the regulatory framework is set. Whether a three-year price freeze is sufficient to offset the loss of a competing operator remains the central question CCS will need to answer.