Hong Kong targets EV transition for franchised buses, taxis in HK$600 million push

Hong Kong authorities will dish out more than HK$600 million (US$77.2 million) to help franchised bus companies and the taxi industry procure electric vehicles (EVs) under a plan to achieve zero vehicular emissions and carbon neutrality by 2050.

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan announced a road map on Tuesday to gradually replace diesel buses and taxis with electric vehicles, which included a subsidy scheme and plans to substantially increase the number of charging stations.

The road map was due to be delivered in the first half of the year, as promised in the 2023 policy address. But Tse said it was delayed due to “limited choices of electric vehicles on the market half a year ago”.

“To incentivise taxi owners to switch to EVs, we need to ensure sufficient choices on the market, so we spent some time talking to the suppliers and introducing new models to Hong Kong, some of which were tailor-made for us,” he said.

“Over the past year, we also saw the prices of EVs declining rapidly, so we believe this is a good time to push for the green transformation of buses and taxis.”

Under the subsidy scheme, which will be rolled out this month, the government aimed to help operators purchase 600 e-buses and 3,000 e-taxis.