Targeting electric cars won’t ease Hong Kong’s traffic or pollution problems
Edwin Lau has some suggestions on how to control car numbers and reduce congestion, and none of them involves cutting the tax waiver for electric cars, as our new financial secretary did in his maiden budget
The government has waived this tax in full since 1994, in an effort to encourage more people to buy electric cars, thus reducing roadside emissions.
The government of that era showed foresight for launching such a bold policy. Unfortunately, electric cars were quite a new concept in the mid-1990s and choices were limited. So even with the waiver, Hong Kong people were reluctant to buy one.
The waiver has now been capped at HK$97,500, and came as a big shock to the industry and potential buyers. With this change, a buyer of a high-end electric car will have to pay over HK$800,000 for the tax alone, more than enough to buy a luxury car that guzzles petrol or diesel.
Price-sensitive consumers will probably do exactly that: shift back to buying conventional cars rather than zero-emission electric cars.
Decision to cut Hong Kong’s electric vehicle tax waiver is ‘backwards’ and sends wrong message, critics say
Electric private cars currently account for only about 1.2 per cent of all private cars in Hong Kong, so it is hard to understand how the new measure could have any big impact on curbing the growth of private car numbers.
