Editorial | Charging woes take the spark out of the electric vehicle surge in Hong Kong
With strong demand for EVs expected to continue, it is important for authorities to foster development of vital infrastructure
The popularity of electric vehicles is accelerating rapidly, and recent years have seen an increasing number of mainland-built cars joining Teslas in plying Hong Kong’s highways and byways.
By the end of November last year, there were about 107,000 EVs in the city, according to the Environmental Protection Department.
That’s a sharp rise of more than 40 per cent from a year earlier and bodes well for the green transition. The explosion in the ranks of EVs, however, has not been without its challenges.
Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has shed light on those issues in a recent report. The Consumer Council received 179 complaints over EVs and charging services last year, from unclear fee instructions when topping up vehicles to a shortage of stations.
The high demand for electric vehicles has been fuelled by tax breaks and government subsidies.
The complaints about some of the city’s 10,400 charging points ranged from vehicles being left overnight not being fully charged by morning and surprise fees.
At one station, a driver complained that a charging session that lasted 11 hours and 7 minutes charged his car insufficiently, only to have another session of 11 hours 59 minutes charge even fewer kilowatt hours.
