Drive Electric Week 2015 Hong Kong and PhatRice

First Uber now this! Local eco startup PhatRice.com believes that Electric Vehicles could completely change the way deliveries are done.

Tesla’s electric luxury cars have been a huge hit in Hong Kong, with almost two thousand of them now making regular appearances all around town. The Tesla drivers are a passionate group and next week they’ll be kicking off Drive Electric Week, a series of events from Sep. 12 – 20 promoting electric vehicles. During this week PhatRice.com, a local online retailer promoting eco-friendly goods, will deliver all orders using Teslas. Customers receiving packages will even have a chance to sit in the electric luxury car and go for a drive-along. Oh and before we forget, shipping is free as usual!

Anthony Lance, Founder of PhatRice commented, “Our community is constantly looking for ways to become greener, but shipping is something people never had control over. We’ve been desperately wanting to provide a green delivery option since we launched PhatRice last year, and now with the help of the EV (Electric Vehicles) community we can finally do that! We see Drive Electric Week as the perfect chance to pilot this service and our hope is it will ultimately change the way all deliveries are done.” PhatRice aims to shine a light in an otherwise opaque industry. We seldom know the actual environmental and social impact of the products we buy, but PhatRice seeks to change this by making transparency the main focus. Anthony states, “Our customers say they’re tired of not knowing how the things they buy are made, so ultimately we want to empower them to make educated choices when they shop. They want to be confident that what they’re buying is contributing to the solution rather than the problem. The EV community shares the same ethos so we think this partnership is a perfect fit!”

Now you may be thinking that delivering packages is strange work for a luxury car with a base ticket price of HK$580,000. However, PhatRice claims this really is the best option available right now for green deliveries. According to Mark Webb-Johnson, Chairman of Charged Hong Kong, “The Tesla Model S is actually extremely practical. Its energy efficiency means that operating costs are less than a quarter that of a petrol vehicle. Maintenance costs are also extremely low as electric vehicles have ten times less moving parts.” The Tesla Model S may not be able to hold as many packages as a van, but it has a surprisingly large amount of cargo space, with a trunk in both the back AND the front under the hood, since it doesn’t need a bulky internal combustion engine. Also, while the Tesla Model S has a steep price tag, there are Electric Vehicles available in Hong Kong today at a price that’s much more accessible.

So how is this actually going to work? PhatRice won’t be shelling out a few million bucks to buy their own fleet of delivery Teslas. Rather drivers from the local EV community will volunteer their cars and time to do the deliveries themselves. Why on earth would these high rollers take the time to do this, do you ask? Mark comments, “Our community is passionate about spreading the message about electric vehicles and renewable energy. We see this as a great way to show people that Electric Vehicles have many practical applications and in fact are the future of transportation and shipping.” PhatRice says this is just a pilot program, but that a sustainable model for green deliveries is in development. Their hope is that with enough public demand from consumers and businesses, existing courier companies will buy their own electric vehicles and begin adding green alternatives to their service offering. Anthony comments, “If one of the local couriers began offering green delivery options, we would certainly use them over the others, and I think other businesses would do the same. In the meantime we’ll have to harness the goodwill and passion of the EV community to make this a reality.”

Drive Electric Week is presented by Plug In America, Sierra Club, and Electric Auto Association. The Hong Kong event this year is being organized by Charged Hong Kong from September 12-20, 2015. If you ever wanted to test drive an Electric Vehicle this is your chance! You can get full information about events as well as test drive times and locations at the Charged Hong Kong website: http://www.charged.hk/driveelectricweek2015hk.

During Drive Electric Week all purchases made on PhatRice.com will be delivered by Tesla cars. PhatRice can arrange a specific delivery time with you so that you have the opportunity to sit in the Tesla and even go for a ride! Shipping is free as usual. Their website is: http://www.phatrice.com