What is the difficulty in popularizing electric vehicles in Hong Kong?
"Green and environmental protection are current trends. In the past two years, Hong Kong's electric vehicle market has developed rapidly, and there are many more supporting facilities such as charging than before. We took this opportunity to decide to change the vehicle type." said Mr. Zhou, a Hong Kong citizen who lives in Yuen Long. Not long before being interviewed by reporters, he had just replaced the oil truck in his hand with an electric vehicle.
In recent years, many regions have been committed to building green cities, reducing emissions and carbon emissions, and Hong Kong is no exception, and electrification of vehicle kinetic energy has become a key link. Since the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has promoted electric vehicles in 2018, the number of electric vehicles in Hong Kong has continued to grow. In 2022, the number of new registrations of electric private cars will exceed that of fuel-fired private cars for the first time. As of the end of July this year, the total number of electric vehicles in Hong Kong was about 98,000, accounting for about 10.7% of all vehicles; and the proportion of pure electric private cars in Hong Kong among newly registered private cars (i.e."market penetration rate") also exceeded 60%.
However, the growth rate of electric vehicles in Hong Kong has been slowing down in the past six months. Member Chen Keqin, who was the chairman of the "Subcommittee on the Development of Electric Vehicles" of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, told reporters that the SAR government introduced a "one-for-one" tax reduction plan for existing fuel-fueled private cars in 2018, proposing that if owners of existing fuel-fueled private cars replace the car with a pure electric vehicle, you can enjoy a first registration tax discount of up to HK$287,500 per vehicle. "At the end of February this year, the plan was announced to be extended for two years, but the tax incentives were also lowered accordingly. This is believed to be one of the main reasons for the slowdown in growth."
Compared with the electrification level of private cars, the pace of electrification of public transportation in Hong Kong is even more "turtle speed". Huang Dahai, secretary-general of the Hong Kong Taxi Drivers 'Association, told reporters that as of now, there are about 18,000 taxis in Hong Kong, of which only 56 are pure electric taxis, which is less than a fraction of the former. It is also in line with the SAR government's expectation of "investing in about 3000 electric taxis by the end of 2027". There is a long way to go.
"Hong Kong taxis operate almost 24 hours a day, requiring more than 20 hours and about 500 kilometers a day. However, there is currently no fast charging network throughout the territory." Huang Dahai said that if electric taxis are launched when the charging network is immature, taxi owners will face the problem of "having a car but no electricity" after purchasing a tram.
Charging problems are also another major reason affecting the increase in electrification of private cars. According to statistics from the SAR government, there are currently about 7400 charging piles in Hong Kong. "But this number is far behind the growth rate of electric vehicles." Mr. Zhou told reporters that after changing cars, he would occasionally encounter situations where he could not find the charging pile or queued for too long.
Chen Keqin said that the SAR government is currently encouraging existing oil and gas stations to add charging equipment and using "fast charging" or "flash charging" methods to help electric vehicle owners solve the problem of charging difficulties. Of course, increasing the coverage rate of charging piles is inseparable from sufficient renovation time and space, and the SAR government should also seriously strengthen planning. In addition, Hong Kong can also take advantage of local Basic scientific research and cooperate with mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to invest in the research and development of new charging equipment or electric vehicle models.
In February this year, the Electric Vehicle Research Center of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University was established. The center is led by Chen Qingquan, founder and rotating chairman of the World Electric Vehicle Association, known as the "father of Asian electric vehicles". Chen Qingquan told reporters that after the center is established, it will spend about one and a half years developing artificial intelligence models to evaluate the energy consumption and carbon emissions of new energy vehicles, and studying wireless charging technology for electric vehicles. "At present, many companies have established joint laboratories with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for the research and development of new products and going abroad. I believe that corresponding results will be implemented soon."
"In addition, Hong Kong's terrain characteristics are also factors affecting the growth of electric vehicles." Chen Keqin added that Hong Kong has many terrain and mountainous areas, which places high requirements on the power system of vehicles. He believes that in addition to developing electric vehicles, Hong Kong can also develop zero-carbon emission, high-energy transportation vehicles such as hydrogen-powered vehicles.
"The Chief Executive will deliver his third policy address next month, which I believe will make further plans for the development and follow-up supporting facilities of new energy transportation such as electricity and hydrogen energy. With careful planning, I believe that Hong Kong will not be too far away from achieving the goal of building a green city." Chen Keqin said.
