Reported by David LIU and James WANG

Because of TESLA, people begin to believe that electrical car can also have amazing performance. With the development of battery technology, more and more electrical cars entries the market. Is it a good choice to buy an electrical car or not? We make an data news story to compare electrical cars and petrol cars in terms of refill station convenience and energy expenditure.

Rapid Growth

The increase of EV in Hong Kong is rapid. After analyzing data from www.td.gov.hk that Hong Kong EV registered numbers (running on the road), we can see the exponential growth of EV and charger numbers. The number grew from only 16 on the road in 2009 to over 3253 in last November, 2015.

Refill Station

When a electric car suddenly runs out of battery on the Hong Kong road, can the driver find a charger just a few blocks ahead? Which district of is most electric-car-friendly in Hong Kong? We found data of all electrical vehicle (EV) charger locations in Hong Kong from the Environment Protection Department official website, as well as all gas stations location in Hong Kong.

Then we uploaded these data to Google Fusion table and visualized it in a map after data cleaning. Click the following link to explore more (Red is for gas station, and Blue is for EV chargers): Click HERE

We marked 330 gas stations with red points and 209 EV chargers with green points. We can see from the map that the distribution of them are commensurate in general. In some remote area like Lantau Island and Outlying Islands, in terms of distribution, gas stations did a better job. But we must know, the development of EV charger is later than gas stations for many years. All in all, no matter a EV or a petrol car is easy to find a refill station in Hong Kong, they are both user friendly.

Click the following link to explore in which district you can worry less about running out of battery: Click HERE

Expenditure

Expenditure is an important element to be considered when people buy a car. To make it clear to compare, we have made an infografic: Click HERE

We can see from the picture that electrical car seems can save more compared with petrol car  from data we got.

CLP says it won’t charge drivers for using electric vehicle chargers until the end of 2016. Even though we don’t know what will happen after that, and for now it’s definitely a bargain. If you look at Tesla official website, they estimate a HK$90,000 saving on gas and license over 5 years in Hong Kong for Tesla Model S.

Users Said:

But only real EV users have the credibility to judge the advantages and disadvantages of EV. We interviewed a EV organization from Hong Kong called HK charger. They told us: “The most common quoted global disadvantage of EVs is range. So long as you have access to charging facilities, that is quite simply not an issue in HK. So the primary disadvantage is the requirement to charge. If you have charging at home/work that becomes an advantage, as simply plugging in when you get home and waking up to a full tank is so much more convenient than having to go out of your way to visit petrol stations. EVs are better for the environment, more fun to drive, and more suited to HK climate that petrol cars. You can run the AirCon in an EV without idling the engine. EVs also enjoy 1/4 the fuel cost, lower servicing requirements, lower annual road tax, and 0% FRT. Long-term, they are significantly cheaper to operate than petrol cars.”

In terms of what can government do to promote EVs, HK charger said: “government has done a great job with GFA incentives for new buildings to install charging. But, we need government to effectively address the issue of home/workplace charging. Too often, management companies or owners corporations deny access to public areas of the building and common electrical distribution facilities. It is still very, very hard for an owner to install charging facilities in a car park he owns in an apartment block. We need legislative and regulatory support for this.”

According to some drivers, the government policy is also another driving force. Currently Hong Kong government waive a 100% percent of registration tax for EVs and it will last to at least end of 2017. That’s not a small amount: if you buy a HK$600,000 car, the tax you pay will be more than the car price itself, because government levy a stunning 115% tax for the car price over HK$200,000!  Under this crazy tax policy and government incentives, it is not hard understand why more and more drivers have turned to EV these years.

After reading all these data information about EV and FV, you must have a better picture of EV and FV in your mind. We hope the story can give a guidance to those who wanna buy a car.