Charged Hong Kong

After last year’s successful Hong Kong Formula e-prix the event is set to be repeated this year over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of December at the same Central venue and street circuit. The year’s event will be a ‘double header’ with a Formula e-prix race being held on both the Satur-day and the Sunday.

An enhanced e-village will be located at Tamar Park and grandstands will be erected at Tamar Park, Lung Wo Road and at the Observation Wheel.

The public sale tickets for the grandstands and the E-motion hospitality will go on sale in mid July, however Charged Hong Kong's corporate member Autosports HK is able to offer corporate discounts up until 7th July 2017 as follows:

"Transport Department figures indicate there is a total of 10,589 private EVs registered in the city, and 2,964 of them were registered in March 2017 alone. That healthy growth then hit a red light when not a single private EV was registered in April."

“There was no first registration of an electric private car in April 2017,” a department spokesman confirms.

http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/motoring/article/2097998/hong-kongs-electr...

There is a long tradition of Cars and Coffee, and we thought it a good idea to combine that with the Hong Kong tradition of a Sunday morning drive. An opportunity to get together over breakfast / coffee and talk about electric vehicles and what can do for the environment and air quality here.

We intend to have these events on a monthly basis - the first Sunday of each month.

The next event will be Sunday 4th June 2017 at Recharge, Cyberport, on Hong Kong Island. The coffee shop is at Level 4 Cyberport 2, and we'll be there between 9am and 11:30am - feel free to come early/late, whichever is more convenient.There is plenty of parking at Cyberport, including Superchargers for Tesla vehicles.

This is very informal. Come if you can. If you have any questions, eMail events@charged.hk.

There is a long tradition of Cars and Coffee, and we thought it a good idea to combine that with the Hong Kong tradition of a Sunday morning drive. An opportunity to get together over breakfast / coffee and talk about electric vehicles and what can do for the environment and air quality here.

We intend to have these events on a monthly basis - the first Sunday of each month.

The first event will be Sunday 7th May 2017 at Starbucks (Shop S001), Science Park. We'll be there between 9am and 11:30am - feel free to come early/late, whichever is more convenient.There is plenty of parking at Science Park, Superchargers, and they have an EV parking concession:

https://www.hkstp.org/hkstp_web/Files/Facility/Science%20Park/Transporta...

This is very informal. Come if you can. But, we would appreciate you letting us know if you can come via eMail to events@charged.hk.

Paul Zimmerman (District Councillor and CEO of Designing Hong Kong) writes an excellent article summarising the recent budget change on support for Electric Vehicles in Hong Kong:

"Stupid. I have tried to think of another term for the decision to end the first registration tax waiver for electric private cars (EVs), but I can’t. Two factors cause roadside air pollution: Congestion and engine technology. To reduce congestion we need to motivate people with improved public transport and walkability, and by making the use and ownership of cars more expensive with congestion charging (road pricing). To motivate people to change the fuel or power they use, we need to subsidize new technology with tax waivers until the installed base has reached tipping point – or at least 30 per cent of the total vehicle fleet. With electrics now more expensive than regular vehicles, Government made it much more difficult to get there."

https://www.thestandnews.com/nature/%E6%89%BC%E6%AE%BA%E9%9B%BB%E5%8B%95...

Charging should be everybody's priority now, particularly in Hong Kong. EV charging enabling our car parks is not a simple task, but Hong Kong has solved this problem before and we can do it again.

Back in the 60s and 70s, when air conditioning first arrived in Hong Kong, none of our buildings could support the power demand, and the electricity providers didn't have enough generation capacity. CLP, HKE, and building management worked together to solve that problem; so that today around 40% of our electricity consumption is air conditioning related.

Nowadays, we have better technology, and are better able to plan and implement the improvements necessary for universal charging. Intelligent load management and flexible metering arrangements are the key to this, and both technologies are available today. The best place to charge your electric vehicle is at your home / work parking garage. Such long-duration charging is more flexible and can use lower power circuits, when compared to opportunistic charging. This also opens up the possibility of Vehicle-To-Grid and how we can use these vehicle batteries as a resource to flatten out peak loads on our electricity grid.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the annual general meeting of Charged Hong Kong will be held at the office of Network Box Co., Ltd, 16/F Metro Loft, 38 Kwai Hei Street, Kwai Chung, Hong Kong, on Wednesday 19th April 2017 at 7:15 pm.

Snack food will be provided to voting members attending. Public parking is available in the outdoor car park opposite the venue.

If you will be attending in person, we ask that you RSVP to agm@charged.hk before 12th April 2017, so that we can ensure adequate seating.

By Order of the Executive Committee
Charged Hong Kong
Mark Webb-Johnson, Chairman

Hong Kong, 28th March 2017

We have produced the following spreadsheet showing the state of Electric Private Cars in Hong Kong today:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14JTBfUyCtUSjL4AxZbMbIGdQXf3lofCd...

Some comments to make:

1. The HK$97,500 tax cap equates to a vehicle costing less than HK$200,000 being 100% FRT free (40% of $150,000 + 75% of $50,000). There are no private electric cars available on the market at that price point, so this new policy effectively taxes ALL electric private cars in Hong Kong.

2. Dr Paul Chan has indicated that the new policy is intended to support an electric car costing HK$400,000. Let's look at the BMW i3 for example. At HK$451,000 (tax free), that competes directly against vehicles such as the Prius Hybrid (Super Luxury trim level) at HK$353,500. The electric car, even tax free, is more expensive than the equivalent petrol car. Considering fuel savings and ignoring charging issues, still 51 of those BMW i3 were sold in the second half of last year. But, now that we have this new tax, and even with HK$97,500 waiver, the same BMW i3 costs HK$677,000 while the price of the Prius is unchanged. How will the BMW i3 compete in this market?

3. Tesla Model S clearly dominates the market.

FOR RELEASE 23 February 2017

HONG KONG - The Hong Kong Government announced, in it’s 2017-2018 budget, changes to the First Registration Tax for Electric Vehicles:

http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201702/22/P2017022200420.htm

The most important part of this change is:

For the period from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 inclusive:
i) the FRT electric private cars will be waived up to $97,500; and
ii) the FRT of electric commercial vehicles (including goods vehicles, buses, light buses, taxis, and special purpose vehicles), electric motor cycles and electric motor tricycles will be waived in full.

For more than 20 years, our government has been promoting and supporting the adoption and use of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Hong Kong, primarily with a 100% waiver of First Registration Tax. This abandonment of that policy is troubling and will undoubtedly slow down the transition to sustainable transportation, and set back the excellent progress we have seen in recent years.

The pollution from each new petrol/diesel vehicle put on the road today will be felt for the 20 years of that vehicle’s life. Future generations will have to live with the decisions that we take today, and this decision is simply bad for Hong Kong’s air quality and roadside pollution levels.