Hong Kong’s electric car trade-in scheme gets boost but why didn’t motorists take advantage of it before and how are the city’s efforts on low-carbon vehicles coming along?

Hong Kong has relaxed the eligibility criteria for an electric car tax rebate scheme to get more motorists to switch to emission-free vehicles after its “one-for-one replacement” programme saw just 321 owners participate over the past 10 months. Rules on the ownership period and car age were eased on Monday, but officials kept the tax break level unchanged, at up to HK$250,000 (US$32,050). Some critics said the core issue – that inadequate charging facilities had deterred drivers from using electric vehicles – had not been addressed. What is the ‘one-for-one replacement’ scheme? Under the scheme, announced in February 2018, a private car owner who arranged to scrap their old fossil fuel-powered car and switched to an e-car could enjoy a first registration tax concession of up to HK$250,000. But there were conditions: the applicant had to have owned the old vehicle for three consecutive years, and the car had to be at least six years old and have had a valid licence for the previous 20 months before it was to be scrapped. The scheme, which runs until March 2021, attracted just 321 car owners up until December last year. How were the eligibility criteria relaxed? The minimum ownership requirement was cut to 18 months, and the car licence period reduced to 10 months. The Transport Department said the changes, which took effect immediately, were prompted after studying public opinions. Scrap eligibility rules for Hong Kong e-car trade-in plan, owners say Are there other measures to promote the use of electric cars? The government has been trying to promote the use of e-cars through tax concessions. It had waived the first registration tax – roughly equal to the value of the vehicle – on e-cars since 1994. But in 2017, it cut the benefit and capped the tax break at just HK$97,500 for private e-cars. With the introduction of the one-for-one scheme, e-car buyers who did not want to trade in their old vehicles or were not eligible could still tap the HK$97,500 waiver on the first registration tax. As for electric commercial vehicles, including goods vehicles, buses, light buses and taxis, first registration tax will still be waived in full until March 2021. Since 2010, companies have enjoyed a 100 per cent profits tax deduction for capital expenditure on electric vehicles in the first year of procurement. A HK$300 million pilot green transport fund was also put in place from March 2011 to encourage public transport firms, goods vehicle operators and charities to try green or low carbon technologies, including electric commercial vehicles. The government has also allocated HK$180 million for franchised bus firms to buy 36 electric single-deckers for trial runs. About 26 battery-electric buses and four supercapacitor ones have commenced operation. The other six – two battery-electric ones and four supercapacitor buses – are expected to be put into service progressively in 2019 11 futuristic cars and vehicles to watch out for at CES 2019 Why didn’t people buy e-cars? Ingrid Yung, vice-chairwoman of e-car owners’ group Electrify Hong Kong, said there were not enough charging stations in the city. She also said some cheaper models with a smaller battery capacity needed to be charged twice a day, but that some public charging stations are not installed with quick chargers. Depending on battery capacity and the car’s on-board charger, it would take six to seven hours to fully charge an e-car by a standard charger. The time could be cut to about three to four hours using a medium charger. Some quick chargers can charge an e-car to 80 per cent capacity in as short a time as 30 minutes, adding 50km to 100km of driving range. According to the government, as of the end of December, there were 2,166 e-car chargers for public use. Of these, 782 were government ones, including 464 medium and four quick chargers. The government said it was seeking to expand the public charging network and was considering installing charging facilities at suitable on-street parking spaces. But it has been the government position that e-car owners are supposed to charge their cars by using facilities at their workplace or home, while the public charging network mainly serves as supplementary facilities. How has Hong Kong done on promoting e-cars? In 2009, a steering committee was set up to recommend measures to encourage the use of e-cars. Since then, the number of registered e-cars has jumped from fewer than 100 in 2010 to 11,063 by the end of last year. Of those, 10,810 were private e-cars and 253 were government vehicles. Five electric-car road trips you can try on your next holiday According to data from the Singapore Land Transport Authority, there were 615,452 registered private cars in the city state as of the end of last year including just 560 pure electric ones. Another 27,966 were so-called green vehicles, including mild hybrids (combining a fuel engine with an electric motor) and plug-in hybrids (with a spare rechargeable battery). This compared with 6,011 green vehicles and two electric private cars in 2010, and 8,434 green vehicles and one e-car in 2015. There were about 120 charging points across the city state, the authority’s 2017-18 annual report said. The Singapore government has plans to expand the number to 2,000 by 2020.