Has Hong Kong pulled the plug on electric cars?
Advocates of zero-emissions vehicles want the government to resume tax breaks and support electric car growth, saying failure to do so would crush smart city ambitions and efforts to reduce air pollution
Chan – who chairs a steering committee on the promotion of electric vehicles – said the surge in the city’s vehicle count and the “increasing acceptance” of battery-powered cars had prompted the government to overturn the tax exemption on electric cars for private use.
Launched in 1994 to encourage residents to switch to greener modes of transport, the exemption fuelled the growth in the number of electric cars in the city – from 69 in April 2011 to 10,588 in April last year, out of a total 590,000 cars.
While capping the tax break for cars at HK$97,500, Chan kept the full waiver for other electric vehicles (EVs) such as light buses and motorbikes. And despite his nod to keeping a lid on the total number of vehicles on the road, there was no corresponding initiative to stem the growth of petrol and diesel cars.
As the city’s vehicle registration taxes start at 40 per cent of the first HK$150,000 of the vehicle’s taxable value, buyers opting for a battery-powered Mercedes E200 at HK$600,000 faced a registration levy of about HK$400,000, or an additional two-thirds of the purchase price.
Mark Webb-Johnson, chairman of Charged Hong Kong – which promotes EVs as a way to improve the city’s air quality – said the group thought the move was “crazy”.
“It’s blindingly obvious. If you reduce concessions, people would just switch back to buying petrol cars,” he said.