Charged Hong Kong

Drive Electric Week, September 12-20, 2015, is an international celebration to heighten awareness of today's widespread availability of plug-in vehicles and highlight the benefits of all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, and more. They are fun to drive, are less expensive and more convenient to fuel than gasoline vehicles, are better for the environment, promote local jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

2015 will mark the first year that Hong Kong will participate, with Charged Hong Kong organising the event here. During that week we'll be running a competition across Hong Kong for EV advocates giving the most test rides, arranging the most test drives, using public and destination charging stations, driving sales of EVs, and many more such EV advocacy tasks. Prizes will be awarded to those participants with the highest number of points gained during the week. More details of this will be provided in the coming days.

The Sunday 20th September 2015 evening event is the culmination of the Drive Electric Week in Hong Kong. This gathering is to celebrate that week with good food, drink, lucky draw prizes for the Drive Electric Week competition, and perhaps a surprise activity or two. It is a once-in-a-year chance to meet other EV owners and drivers in Hong Kong. Remote Control Roadster and Model S cars will be there for drivers of all ages.

An enterprising Hong Kong Tesla owner, has written a neat web app to crowd-source supercharger availability in Hong Kong.

The app can be saved as a home-screen app and is cross platform (as well as being available on desktop browsers). It shows an overview of the 8 supercharging locations in Hong Kong, distance to each, as well as last reported status (how many charge stalls last seen in use).

With a couple of simple taps, contributors can report how many stalls they see empty when they visit superchargers (presumably once when they arrive, and again when they leave). The writer has even managed to arrange automatic update of status for one of the superchargers (as the mall carpark that it is installed in has that status available online).

Tesla Supercharging in Hong Kong is different than most other countries in that (a) it is for those who can't charge at home/work (not for long distance trips), and (b) the superchargers are primarily inside car parks. Imagine your frustration when you pay to get into a car park, drive up to the superchargers, then find all the stalls occupied and a long line of Teslas queued up waiting. This crowd-sourced app attempts to give some visibility to the supercharger status, before you arrive.

If you want to give it a try, it is here: IM Tesla
and you can use invitation code "Nikola" to get access.

CLP Power Hong Kong Limited (CLP Power) today (25 June) announces two major new
initiatives in response to the rapid development of the electric vehicle (EV) market in Hong
Kong and to the growing needs of EV users.

The company is pioneering the introduction of the first multi-standard quick charger in Hong
Kong and simultaneously launching a one-stop “333 EV Power Supply Support” service,
which makes it easier for EV drivers to arrange for the installation of EV charging facilities in
the car parks of residential and commercial buildings. Through these twin measures, CLP
Power aims to encourage the use of EVs in Hong Kong and promote green driving.

https://www.clp.com.hk/ourcompany/news/currentrelease/Documents/20150625...

A number of Hong Kong hotels have announced some special offers for Tesla Motors EV drivers in Hong Kong. These offers include 'destination charging', free parking, and dining incentives.

We'd like to send out a big thank you to these hotels for their support of the EV community in Hong Kong.

* Please note that offers are subject to change, so please confirm offers, availability, and terms, with the Hotel at booking time.

The Hong Kong Automotive Association and AutoSportsHK organized an electrifying event, the “Electric Vehicle Fiesta 2015″ this past Sunday.

Many of the local dealers and direct sales manufactures (BMW, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault, Tesla and Volkswagen) have participated by showing off their latest EV models available to the Hong Kong buyers. And YES, manufacturers can open their own direct sales showroom in the city.

For more information, and lots of event pictures, please see the InsideEVs article here: http://insideevs.com/ev-showdown-hong-kong/

Electricity generation currently produces nearly 70 per cent of Hong Kong’s local carbon emissions. However the current regulatory arrangement with the power utilities does not prioritize either the reduction of the emissions produced by local electricity generation or a reduction of the electricity tariff. These barriers are slowing down Hong Kong’s ability to combat climate change.

The current Scheme of Control Agreements (SCAs) between the government and the utilities allows the power companies to create more profit by building new generation units. This leaves Hong Kong with a large electricity reserve margin – over 30 per cent. This means that we are moving away from the growing trend of energy saving. In addition, this out-dated agreement ignores the present advantages of renewable energy and does not encourage investment in related technology. As a result, our electricity market keeps growing in size and intensively emitting carbon, preventing Hong Kong from becoming an energy-efficient, low-carbon society.

2018 will see the expiry of the current SCAs. In the run-up to this date, the Environment Bureau kicked off a public consultation on the future development of our electricity market. The consultation results will influence both Hong Kong’s ability to combat climate change and the electricity tariff paid by Hong Kong citizens.

In an attempt to spur demand for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles, China is increasing tax exemptions on purchases of “new-energy” vehicles and vessels. The government hopes that making a push for new-energy technology, (electric, plug-in and fuel-cell technology) will help alleviate rampant pollution.

China introduced 10 percent tax exemptions on new-energy vehicles last year, but announced on Tuesday further tax cuts on domestic purchasing by 50 percent. The tax exemptions are the result of a joint effort by the Ministry of Finance, State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which also announced that all new-energy vehicles being used for commercial use would be completely exempted from normal vehicle and vessel taxes.

You can read more on this at the International Business Times:
http://www.ibtimes.com/china-increases-subsidies-energy-efficient-vehicl...

AutoSportsHK, and the Hong Kong Automobile Association, are organising an Electric Vehicle Fiesta at the Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree site in the northern Hong Kong New Territories.

The Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees (林村許願樹) are a popular shrine in Hong Kong located near the Tin Hau Temple in Fong Ma Po Village, Lam Tsuen. The temple was built around 1768 or 1771, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor in the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). The site consists of a large open area, with extensive parking on two sides, and the wishing trees, visitors centre, and environmental centre on another.

The Electric Vehicle Fiesta will consist of vehicle demo, EV parking, and skills based course areas. VW, BMW, Tesla and Renault will be showing their latest EV offerings, and HKPC will be presenting their charging technology used by many of the EV charger manufacturers in Hong Kong.

The event will run throughout the day, starting at 10:30am and winding up around 5pm, but attendance is flexible. The morning will be primarily an opportunity to see and talk to the various vehicle manufacturers, and for owners to get together and see the cars. There will then be an opportunity for group lunches at the nearby restaurants in the village. In the afternoon, the skills based course will be opened up to participating EV drivers, to practice your driving skills in a wide open safe controlled environment, under the guidance of the Hong Kong Automobile Association. (*)