Zhongtong N12 electric buses under SMRT Buses were suspended from passenger service on 28 January 2026.
These buses operate out of SMRT’s Gali Batu Bus Depot since 4 October 2025. SMRT Buses currently has a fleet of 57 Zhongtong N12 buses, all of which were allegedly grounded on 28 January 2026.
Speculations of the bus model’s absence on Discord servers and SGwiki aligned with ground observations. Bus services that typically operate a majority fleet of Zhongtong N12, including Service 300 and Service 973, were operated with diesel MAN A22 buses on the day.
According to a user talk page on SGWiki, the buses were likely grounded due to a safety-related design flaw. There were no further details elaborated on the incident that triggered the fleetwide grounding of the bus model.
However, Zhongtong buses under other public transport operators – SBS Transit, Tower Transit and Go-Ahead, continued to operate on revenue service that day.
The buses have since resumed passenger service on 29 January 2026.
I hope SMRT Zhongtong e-buses moves to Woodlands INT.
Problem is Woodlands Depot has less than 10 chargers unless the Bus Park fit another 30 chargers.
China brand products have always had a bad rep due to cutting corners, from food to construction. When it comes to Public safety, even if one life is compromised due to such choices, it should not be tolerated and full investigation should be made. Such brands, whether from China or any other countries which may be the case, should be banned from Singapore. â…—
Should not go totally EV. Must have a mix of hybrid and EV. Hybrid technology is more mature compared to EV.
So much problems hiya. LTA shouldnt have rush EV buses, so many problems. Should have brought a few at a time or settle with Euro 7 in the future or hybrid better. If die die want EV bus fleet, better to purchase from other brands and not just china brands.
They will bring in a demonstrator bus to see if it’ll pass (about 1 year trial period) B4 buying more, so I don’t think this is considered “rushing”. Lots of ebuses didn’t pass the trial and were returned to their manufacturers. Anyways majority of the bus fleet is still running on diesel. Yes they have electric bus from European manufacturers like linkker too. The lifespan of buses in sg is usually 13 years, and to procure new diesel/hybrid buses now in 2026 is just not feasible as I believe they want to achieve no emissions by 2030… Use 4 years then scrap already, that’s why some old diesel buses like the Scania kub are getting lifespan extensions to help meet demands while waiting for the new ebuses.
Because of some connections with ppl from the purchasing department that’s why…
Brands like MAN, Mercedes, Scania, ADL are expensive is the reasons. I don’t mind they just buy 1 or 2 Chinese brands but must have European and Japanese EV as well… Fare keep on raising but standard now all below… Greedy just greedy
Want to save cost by buying Chinese in the end has to fork out money to modified it..