Smart City, Smart Mobility, Conference 2019

SMART CITY, SMART MOBILITY CONFERENCE 2019
Key Takeaways:
The Needs of Specific Target Dates for the Migration to Zero Emission Transportation,
Government Enthusiasm in Formulating Policy, Regulatory Framework and a Workable Strategy, and Removal of Barriers to Deployment of Charging Infrastructure

(Hong Kong, 22 May 2019) – The Smart City, Smart Mobility Conference, organised by Hotel ICON in collaboration with Charged Hong Kong, was successfully held on 21 May 2019 at Hotel ICON. The three key takeaways for the event are 1) Hong Kong needs specific target dates for the migration to zero emission transportation, 2) Government should work with industry to formulate policy, regulatory framework, and a workable strategy and 3) Removal of barriers to deployment of charging infrastructure

Following the success of the inaugural Future Electric Vehicle Leaders Circle in May 2018, Richard Hatter, General Manager of Hotel ICON, mentioned that the sequel of the Smart City, Smart Mobility Conference was another great success and had provided a multi-stakeholder platform for academia, the government and corporate enterprises to engage with this topic. Over 150 industry executives and representatives of automakers, power companies, consulting firms, tertiary institutions, Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) and EV-charging solution providers from Hong Kong, Sweden and The Netherlands gathered at Hotel ICON’s Silverbox Ballroom to attend the event yesterday.

According our speakers from Sweden, the country that aims to be a fossil-free welfare state in the foreseeable future, ambitious targets have been formalised in climate laws. Helena Storm, Consul General of Sweden in Hong Kong and Macau and Magnus Carnwall, Counsellor for Energy Affairs, Embassy of Sweden in Beijing, continued by emphasizing on the importance of the deployment of home charging, plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and significant expansion of public charging infrastructure in its pioneer cities such as Stockholm, Östersund, Gävle and Gothenburg. Mark van Kerkhof, Managing Consultant from Energy and Climate of APPM, then shared E-Mobility in The Netherlands, the Dutch approach on smart charging infrastructure and the shift from private vehicles to environmental-friendly public transport.

Other speakers and moderators included Mark Webb-Johnson, Chairman, Charged Hong Kong; Edmond Chan, Senior Systems Engineering Manager of Technical Services, CLP Power Hong Kong ; Hon. Kenneth Leung, LegCo; Professor Kevin Tsui, Associate Professor, Clemson University; Isabel Fan, Regional Director of Tesla; Dr. Locky Law, Director of Education, Charged Hong Kong; Julian de Jonquieres, Sr. Manager, Business Development, Supercharger, Tesla; Cliff Wu, General Manager, Hong Kong EV Power Ltd; Paul Bromley, Managing Director, Phoenix Business Consulting and Alex Wai, Founding Member, Charged Hong Kong.

In the first panel titled the ‘Unleashing the Potential of Smart Mobility in Hong Kong’, the panelists echoed that smart mobility and smart city measures helped bring forth both economic and social benefits, such as significant improvement in air quality and reduced medical bills. The transformation from LPG minibuses and taxis to electric public transport would also contribute to the success of smart mobility in the city. Coordination of government bureaus and EV-charging solution providers are necessary to drive the installation of both public and residential EV-charging facilities, expansion of public parking spaces and real-time information sharing with the public on available charging stations nearby.

Following the first panel session, Professor John Shi, Head of Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics and Director of Laboratory for Smart City and Spatial Big Data Analytics from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), shared the vision of PolyU’s innovative lab in being the centre of excellence in urban informatics worldwide and a living laboratory of smart city development for Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area. Continued research has been conducted on six key areas, including smart mobility, smart environment, smart government, smart living, smart people and smart economy.

In the second panel discussion on ‘Smart Charging Infrastructure Solution and Implementation, Smart Elements of Charging Infrastructure’, the panelists agreed that Hong Kong was ready for a smart mobility revolution. It was a matter of the applications of the latest technologies so as to make EV batteries and charging more cost-effective. Generous subsidies and policy driven deployment are essential to increase utilisation of EVs and eliminate the barriers for entry for both public and private sectors.

As a pioneer in EV adoption in the hospitality industry, Hotel ICON runs a fully electric transportation fleet, consisting of Hong Kong’s first electric hotel shuttle buses, three Tesla Model S and a BMW i3.

The hotel is also thrilled to be organising the Hong Kong SMART Hotel Summit on 6 June 2019 and Cyber Security Conference on 3 July 2019. For further information on the SMART Hotel Summit and registration, please visit https://shs.hotel-icon.com/.

Full video of the conference is available, in two parts, below.

Part 1:

Part 2: