How can the use of electric cars be promoted?
I refer to the letter by Kelvin Yin (Talkback, April 16). He thinks electric cars are clean and quiet.
It is necessary to rectify this alleged term 'clean transport'. With electric cars, the pollution is transferred to the air via a different course, namely shifting from conventional cars' tailpipes to the smoke stacks of power plants, and this also makes a major contribution to air pollution and climate change.
The use of electric private cars might create another environmental problem, as it will spur demand for another finite raw material to make batteries. Also, private cars can never be as efficient as public transport. Our government should promote much cleaner public transport for this crowded city.
I agree with Chris Stubbs (Talkback, April 15): 'Why not work at getting the polluting buses replaced by electrically powered ones?' Why are we still wasting time on trials merely for private cars in Hong Kong, when there are certain good examples of local public transport already? A 16-passenger Mitsubishi Rosa electric shuttle bus has been running at the airport since 2000. And Park Island Transport has been using a hybrid electric bus from DesignLine since 2003.
This diesel-electric drive system has already been used on more than 1,500 buses in places like New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Ottawa. London has had hybrid-electric double-decker red buses on its roads since 2007.
These buses use a small diesel engine with electric storage through a lithium ion battery pack. The diesel engine is less than one-third the size of the typical seven-litre bus engine. Based on a London test cycle, a reduction in CO{-2} emissions of 31 per cent and fuel savings in the range of 40 per cent have been demonstrated, compared with a modern Euro IV-compliant bus.