Spending a lot of public money to provide electric car owners with public charging facilities for daily instead of supplementary use is unjustified.
Secretary for the Environment KS Wong made the statement at the Legislative Council today, noting the number of public charging facilities increased to 1,774 from 1,036 in 2013, while the number of medium or quick chargers has grown to 880 from 66.
However, he said the utilisation of public chargers in government car parks remains low.
From January 2016 to September 2017, the average utilisation rate of standard or medium chargers in government car parks was about 13 times per month per charger, which was less than half a time per day.
Over the same period, the average utilisation rate of standard or medium chargers installed by the two power companies in public car parks was around 38 times per month per charger, which was also low.
Mr Wong said, when considering the provision of more public chargers, the Government must consider the utilisation rate of existing public chargers to ensure cost effectiveness.
"It has always been the Government's policy objective that electric private car owners should perform daily charging of their electric private cars by using charging facilities at their home, workplace or other suitable places, including charging facilities provided by electric private car suppliers.
"Public charging facilities in Hong Kong are supplementary in nature, set up for electric vehicles to top up their batteries to complete their journeys at times of occasional need. They do not serve as daily charging facilities.
"The Government sees insufficient justifications for spending (a) large amount of public money to provide electric private car owners with public charging facilities for daily instead of supplementary use."
He advised potential buyers of electric cars to study daily charging arrangements and not rely on public facilities for daily charging of their vehicles.
