Research background and purpose
Hong Kong’s air pollution is a serious problem. Over the past few years, the levels of respirable suspended particulates and nitrogen dioxide in the roadside air have consistently exceeded the air quality target, which is mainly caused by pollutants emitted by vehicles1. In view of this, the Hong Kong government pointed out in the 2009-2010 “Policy Address” that the government aims to promote electric vehicles, solve pollution, and make Hong Kong the most extensive in Asia.
One of the areas where electric vehicles are used 2. Due to the low popularity of electric vehicles at that time, the government implemented a large number of electric vehicle policies, such as adding chargers and adding tax incentives, to attract motorists to use them.
The policy has been in place for almost 10 years, and there are indeed many technological advances and an increase in the number of users. However, the proportion of electric vehicles is still low, and air pollution is still serious. Some people think that the government should increase efforts to promote electric vehicles. Some people think that since the vigorous promotion of electric vehicles in the past ten years has not improved air pollution, another method should be found to solve the pollution problem more effectively.
Massive resources should not be devoted to promoting electric vehicles. In the research, I hope to explore the effectiveness of the government’s promotion of electric vehicles, analyze whether the continued promotion of electric vehicles can effectively solve pollution, and measure its effectiveness through the difference between the goal of promoting electric vehicles and the results of actual operations.
area of research
The scope of this study is limited to electric private cars, rather than other vehicles, such as buses, taxis, lorries, etc. There are two reasons: first, private cars account for the majority of all vehicles in Hong Kong, and the increase is also the largest. As can be seen in the figure on the right, in 2016, the number of private car registrations accounted for 71% of all vehicles, and its annual increase was 5%, which was higher than that of other types of vehicles, and the potential pollution to the environment would be greater in the future. Secondly, the technology of electric private vehicles is the most mature. According to the information of the Transport Department, there are 53 types of electric private vehicles approved in Hong Kong, while only 23 types of electric commercial vehicles. Therefore, electric vehicles and private vehicles have prerequisites for their promotion and widespread use. It is also feasible and worthwhile to study the feasibility and effectiveness of its promotion.
The value of study
This research is also meaningful for the social, environmental, resource utilization and other aspects.
social dimension
This is a widely discussed topic and is controversial. Whether it should continue to be promoted is worth exploring. Different stakeholders in the society have different opinions. For example, the electric vehicle industry and some environmentalists believe that the current use of electric private cars is still low, and the government should increase the promotion of the use of electric vehicles. Some people think that the promotion of electric vehicles is ineffective, and it will be difficult to popularize electric vehicles if they continue to promote them. Electric vehicles themselves will cause other pollution, and they should find other ways to solve the pollution problem, such as reducing the use of private cars.
environmental dimension
Hong Kong’s roadside air pollution is often criticized for reducing the quality of life and causing more health problems. As the number of cars increases, the problem will only remain severe. Discussing policies on electric vehicles can explore how to improve air pollution and achieve sustainable development.
The significance of social resource utilization
In order to promote the development of electric vehicles, the government has invested a lot of resources in the development of software and hardware, and provided tax relief to reduce taxes, but there is still some doubt as to whether it is worth it. At the beginning of 2017, the government decided to significantly reduce the policy that mainly promotes electric vehicles (i.e. exempting the first registration tax of vehicles), believing that the popularity of electric vehicles has greatly increased, so there is no need to promote such vigorous efforts to reduce resources, but the sales of electric vehicles volume dropped immediately. Therefore, the study can also analyze whether the resources for promoting electric vehicles are used properly
Research Questions
To what extent does Hong Kong’s current use of electric vehicles achieve the expected target?
What are the views of different stakeholders on the promotion of electric private cars?
What are the electric vehicle policies in different countries and how is it different from Hong Kong?
Charging stations:
https://www.hkelectric.com/en/smart-power-services/ev-charging-solution/location-map
https://services.clp.com.hk/ev/en/charginglocations.html
This is a college student report on EVs, absoluely useful but it’s in Chinese, better to translate it and take a look
https://www.skss.edu.hk/skss/images/web-main/02_Academic/03_Student_Showcase/03_Humanities/2019_6M_%E9%99%B3%E6%B8%85%E7%9D%BF_%E5%88%86%E6%9E%90%E9%9B%BB%E5%8B%95%E7%A7%81%E5%AE%B6%E8%BB%8A%E5%9C%A8%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E7%9A%84%E7%99%BC%E5%B1%95%EF%BC%8C%E4%BB%A5%E6%8E%A2%E7%A9%B6%E6%94%BF%E5%BA%9C%E6%87%89%E5%90%A6%E7%B9%BC%E7%BA%8C%E6%8E%A8%E5%BB%A3%E9%9B%BB%E5%8B%95%E7%A7%81%E5%AE%B6%E8%BB%8A%E4%BD%BF%E7%94%A8.pdf
