Hong Kong to phase out fossil fuel cars and go all electric over next 20 years

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Hong Kong plans to phase out all fossil fuel vehicles over the next 10 to 20 years and switch to electric modes of commercial and public transport to improve air quality, according to the city’s environment chief.

Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing’s commitment to the city’s electric vehicle (EV) transition came just a week after he announced that the government would provide HK$2 billion to old private estates to upgrade parking facilities to EV charging.

“It’s about readiness. When the EV market is more mature, we will be prepared. We will not be able to meet the demands if we don’t take action now," he said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

The government’s plan is expected to cover 60,000 car spaces across the city. Combined with 100 per cent gross floor area concessions for electric vehicle chargers granted by the Building Authority since 2011 to private developers, a quarter of all parking spaces in Hong Kong should be compatible with electric vehicle charging in three years, Wong said.

As of August, there were 12,195 electric vehicles approved for road use in Hong Kong, up from fewer than 100 at the end of 2010. EVs make up about 1.8 per cent of private cars in the city, putting it just behind Beijing’s 2 per cent.

Wong said the government still needed to consult the public on the exact time frame to ban all fossil fuel vehicles, but doing it in the next decade or two was reasonable given the experiences of other jurisdictions.

In Norway, where 52 per cent of all new car sales in 2017 were electric, diesel and gas vehicle sales have been forecast to end by 2025. Ireland has planned to ban sales by 2030. And the United Kingdom has said it hopes to stop the sale of gas vehicles by 2040, cutting the country’s vehicle emissions to zero by 2050.

In Asia, Taiwan has announced a ban on all sales of non-electric motorcycles by 2035 and four-wheel vehicles by 2040, while mainland China has said it is developing a long-term plan to phase out combustion engines but has not set a date.