Charged Hong Kong

WAVE 2016

http://www.wave.earth/

The World Advanced Vehicle Expedition (WAVE) is a people's movement offering practical environmentally sustainable actions following the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change. Join the 6th WAVE Trophy with your electric vehicle or with your school.

The general idea is to send a climate commitment for each pupil to United Nations and the leaders of the world. On a particular day around early April 2016, the WAVE Hong Kong will send an electric vehicle to your school to pick up the commitments and take them to the nearest port - to be shipped to Bremerhaven, Germany. From there, 100 electric vehicles will transport those cards in a convoy to United Nations in Geneva, creating not only the world's largest card mosaic (a new Guinness World Record), but also sending a strong message from each pupil to the nations of this world. Finally, each pupil will find his card online, when a drone will take a high resolution photograph of the whole mosaic.

Charged.HK was conceived almost a year ago. Here is a brief history and current status:

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It was in 1994 that the HK SAR introduced the initial exemption of “First Registration Tax” for electric private vehicles ("EV FRT Exemption"). Ever since, this exemption has been renewed multiple times. Last was March 2014, this time for a period of 3 years, to be reviewed by March 2017.

As EV (Electric Vehicle) technology is finally starting to catch up to fossi-fuel cars, the change is starting to take off - 20 years after the first exemption was passed. In Hong Kong, the group of EV owners is now growing outside of the early-mover stage into where ordinary citizens have started to replace their fossil-fuel cars with and EV.

(No, it's not me in the picture, but my son)

During 2015 Drive Electric week in Hong Kong, I won a BMW i3 for a weekend. This turned out to be 4 days (Thursday to Monday), driving just over 300 km.

My own car is a 2014 right hand drive Tesla Model S (pre-drive assist version). Both of these cars are fully electric - the only way to power them are using a plug (In Hong Kong, the serial hybrid i3 iRex isn’t sold due to registration tax incentives not covering hybrids). We are a family of two adults, as well as a 21 month old boy and 3 month old girl.

TLDR - Conclusion: The i3 is a really nice car. In some ways, the i3 is better, in other ways, the Tesla Model S is better. Both cars are highly recommended - for details, read on.

You can also check out the photo gallery of 55 photos here: http://is.gd/lpl4S2

… as well as a short time lapse video, showing two kids, two car seats and a tandem Sit’n’Stand stroller being loaded in the i3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbYP9he3TrU

My wife is taking the time lapse video so she is not in the video, but will also fit into the car, obviously.

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This year's Charged Hong Kong Rally will take place on Sunday November 29th 2015. The route will be approximately 60km and well within the range of most EVs in Hong Kong.

The event will start with a breakfast gathering at Hotel ICON, Tsim Sha Tsui. We've booked the whole green lobby, and arranged a breakfast buffet in that fabulous space. Valet parking is provided, as well as valet charging for those in need of a top-up (but given the number of electric cars attending, please limit this to if you really need it). There will be plenty of time for socialising, and the cars will be on display at the entrance to the hotel (allowing for plenty of photo and video opportunities). The schedule is for this event to start at 9am.

Around 11am, we'll be getting in our cars for the eco-Rally to Science Park. We've planned two parts to this:

We're pleased to be able to announce that after six months of application process, and vetting by both the Societies Office and Inland Revenue Department, effective 5th September 2015, Charged Hong Kong (電動香港) has been recognised as being a charitable institution, and is exempt from tax under Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance. This is something that your executive committee has been working hard on since our formation earlier this year, and we are incredibly grateful to the Inland Revenue Department for their kind assistance with this process.

As part of the charitable status application process, we held an EGM on 5th September 2015, and passed a set of amendments to our constitution in order to be better aligned to our charitable purpose. I think the Objectives of the association best explain what we are trying to achieve:

Charged Hong Kong is proud to announce that VITALAGE has agreed to sponsor Drive Electric Week 2015 Hong Kong.

VITALAGE is an Aesthetic Medical Centre that provides personalized treatments that are clinically proven to be safe and effective. Our experienced team is passionate in helping every visiting patient to enhance their skin health & beauty. The VITALAGE name denotes “the most dazzling time of our lives”. It is an extension of the company’s mission to support every client in her pursuit of a beautiful life – one that is as strong and dazzling as a diamond. VITALAGE is proud to support and sponsor the Drive Electric Week event organized by Charged Hong Kong.

From September 12th to December 31st 2015, VITALAGE is also offering the following to EV drivers in Hong Kong:

Charged Hong Kong is proud to announce that InsideEVs has agreed to help promote and sponsor Drive Electric Week 2015 Hong Kong.

www.insideevs.com

As they put it: 'InsideEVs is proud to help promote and sponsor the first Drive Electric Week celebration in Hong Kong, along with event organizer Charged Hong Kong. InsideEVs is currently the largest media outlet on the Internet dedicated solely to promoting electric vehicles, and this event's purpose mirrors our own mission statement to "get the word out" about the benefits of driving an EV.'

Mark Webb-Johnson, chairman of Charged Hong Kong, commented that 'it is with the help of organisations such as InsideEVs that we can spread the word about the benefits of driving and owning Electric Vehicles. We are particularly thankful for InsideEVs international outlook in such promotional efforts. This week's focus on social media and sharing the good news about EVs in Hong Kong is providing to be incredibly powerful, and the publicity provided by InsideEVs is helping to leverage that good work.'

Drive Electric Week is presented by Plug In America, Sierra Club, and Electric Auto Association. The Hong Kong event in 2015 is organised by Charged Hong Kong.