Hong Kong’s prototype electric bus goes up in flames: Short circuit blamed

A HK$3.8 million prototype electric bus, the first to be designed in the city but built on the mainland, went up in flames on Sunday.

The fire department believed the vehicle, which had just passed a road test and was ready for commercialisation, suffered a short circuit and overheated battery.

Police were alerted at about 5.30pm on Sunday when a driver passing the parking site in Fuk Hi Street on the Yuen Long Industrial Estate noticed thick black smoke billowing into the air.

Firemen put out the flames shortly before 6pm but the bus was reduced to a charred wreck.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Productivity Council, which designed and unveiled the bus in a promotional event on October 26, said the vehicle had been handed over a couple of weeks ago to the project sponsor Green Dynamic Electric Vehicle, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed China Dynamics (Holdings), for commercial production after passing road tests.