In order to accelerate the electrification of vehicles in Macao, the Environmental Protection Bureau has formulated the "Macao Electric Vehicle Promotion Plan".
Member of the Legislative Council of Macao, Li Liangwang: In order to further promote the emission reduction work of land transport and achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, the Macao SAR Government has formulated the "Macao Electric Vehicle Promotion Plan", which aims to put forward various goals and measures to promote the development of electric vehicles from a scientific and comprehensive perspective, and promote the gradual transition of land transport to near-zero emissions, and put forward the goal of achieving 100% of newly registered zero-emission light vehicles and motorcycles (electric vehicles or other technologies) by 2035.
However, as of the end of December 2023, only 5,351 of the 116,282 light vehicles in Australia were electric, accounting for only 4.6%. On the other hand, as of 6 March 2024, there are a total of 1,333 charging piles supporting the national standard, European standard and Japanese standard in public parking lots and streets in Macao, and due to the complicated and restrictive procedures for the installation of charging facilities in private parking lots in Macao, the owner of the parking space is required to obtain the consent of two-thirds of the owners of the parking lot in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Code, and the consent of one-half of the owners of the parking lot is also required to be obtained without changing the power supply of the original building. As a result, public charging services still dominate the market at present, and there is a big gap between the HKSAR Government's policy objective of "focusing on self-use charging facilities, supplemented by public charging facilities".
It is worth pointing out that it is still difficult to obtain the consent of the vast majority of owners of non-driving electric vehicles when electric vehicles are not yet widely used, and if the power supply needs to be changed, there will be cost sharing problems, which will make it more difficult to install charging equipment. The more difficult it is to install charging facilities in private car parks, the more difficult it is to spread electric vehicles, and the more difficult it is to install charging facilities in private car parks, leading to a vicious cycle of problems.
In addition to enhancing the Guidelines on Application for Retrofitting of EV Charging Facilities in Car Parks of Private Buildings to enhance the efficiency of vetting and approval, the HKSAR Government should consider amending the law to break the existing restrictions and effectively assist existing buildings in solving the problem of difficulty in installing charging facilities, so as to respond to the actual demands of the public. Before private charging facilities become dominant, it is recommended that the HKSAR Government conduct a study on the views of the community and the actual situation and introduce preferential charging measures to further promote the penetration rate of electric vehicles and make up for the shortcomings of private charging facilities.
Associate Professor Song Qingbin, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Macau University of Science and Technology: According to the "Macao's Long-term Carbon Reduction Strategy", land transportation, as an important carbon emission area in Macao, should prioritize achieving deep carbon reduction by 2050 and achieving near-zero emissions. Promoting new energy vehicles to replace fuel vehicles has become a necessary measure for the world to achieve carbon neutrality, especially electric vehicles have become the main force in the development of new energy vehicles. Therefore, the Macao Electric Vehicle Promotion Plan is an important support for the realization of the "Macao Long-term Carbon Reduction Strategy" and a detailed embodiment of the implementation of carbon reduction measures for land transportation. The promotion plan focuses on setting differentiated green transformation goals for private cars and commercial vehicles, with reasonable overall goals and practical measures, providing scientific support for ensuring the green and low-carbon development of road transportation in Macao.
In the future, in the implementation of Macao's electric vehicle promotion plan, it may be necessary to pay attention to:
The first is the safety of electric vehicles (including electric motorcycles). In recent years, with the rapid development of the electric vehicle industry, it has also exposed certain safety problems related to spontaneous combustion and fire of power batteries, and it is necessary to strictly ensure the quality and operation safety of infrastructure such as charging;
In particular, with the continuous increase in the promotion of electric vehicles, Macao will face the challenge of recycling and safe disposal of a large number of waste batteries in the future, and it is necessary to carry out management and technical research on retired power batteries in advance. At the same time, although the Macao Environmental Protection Bureau has carried out the recycling of electric vehicle batteries, the treatment capacity of the facilities is not enough to cope with large-scale scrapping in the future, and the current treatment is mainly simple pretreatment and transportation to Japan and South Korea for final disposal, which is relatively high cost and has caused a great waste of resources.
Ip Tsz Hang, Consultant, Association for Sustainable Development: When implementing the electric vehicle plan, it is recommended that the relevant departments should make more long-term and detailed planning, and the corresponding supporting measures and safety supervision need to be determined and clear. For example, when more people in Macao use electric vehicles, can the supporting service measures such as charging and maintenance of electric vehicles keep up? This is a question worth considering. What to do with the waste or batteries generated by the use of electric vehicles? These are questions that need to be considered in the long term. In addition, in the event of emergencies or traffic jams, it is also worth exploring whether electric vehicles can meet the needs of the public.
It is also suggested that the HKSAR Government should promote more green modes of travel, such as buses, bicycles and walking, which have less environmental impact, and green travel can also play an important role in energy conservation and emission reduction.
Cheng Chun Yue, Chairman of the Macau Green and Low-Carbon Industry Association: The "Macao Electric Vehicle Promotion Plan" is an important policy formulated by the Environmental Protection Bureau to promote the electrification of vehicles and reduce vehicle exhaust emissions in Macao.
Looking at the "Macao Electric Vehicle Promotion Plan", the advantages are as follows: first, the policy objectives are clear, which will help reduce vehicle exhaust emissions and improve air quality in Macao; the plan proposes to introduce electric vehicles in the public sector, public transportation and logistics industries, which has a demonstration and driving role; it is planned to build a network of electric vehicle charging facilities to solve the pain point problem of charging difficulties; and through fiscal and tax preferential policies, reduce the cost of purchasing and using electric vehicles to attract the public.
What needs to be improved: first, the battery swap station of electric motorcycles is seriously insufficient, which affects the public's desire to buy and use, and is not convenient enough; the second is to increase the supervision and guidance of electric vehicle battery recycling to prevent secondary pollution; third, strengthen the training of electric vehicle maintenance personnel, establish a perfect after-sales service system; fourth, increase the battery swap station, provide subsidies for the construction of the battery swap station industry; fifth, strengthen the laws and regulations and publicity and education on the safety and driving behavior of electric vehicles