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Public Transport EVs: “fell far short of expectation”

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  1. #1

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    Public Transport EVs: “fell far short of expectation”


    Over the period, the hybrid buses were found to consume on average 0.4 per cent more fuel than conventional diesel buses on the same routes – far short of the 30 per cent fuel saving as reported in overseas economies.

    “The poor fuel economy performance of the hybrid buses should mainly be due to the high air-conditioning loading in the hot and humid summer in Hong Kong, which could account for up to 40 per cent of the fuel consumption,” it said.

    More on taxis and other issues, including lack of rapid charging infrastructure.

    Hong Kong electric taxis will not operate round the clock due to long charging times | South China Morning Post

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    I wonder if the other lack of savings in fuel efficiency had anything to do with the driving style of HK taxi drivers!

    Charging can be solved with quick chargers, not sure if they have been installed here. And more of them - ideally next to taxi ranks with generally long taxi queues I would imagine. This is an opportunity for HK to develop some technology - how about wireless charging on large plates under taxi ranks? If it can work for phones, why not for taxis.....

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    If it can work for phones, why not for taxis.....
    I'd suspect that pesky requirement of 30-40-50 amps might have something to do with it.
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    If EV technology in cars is going to take off, this is where the innovation has to take place. I was at a talk by Tesla in Australia a few months back, and they were talking about quick charging technology (existing technology that they are installing) that would allow car drivers to charge at motorway services while they went in for a cup of coffee - so 10-20 minute charge cycles that then allowed a few hundred km more of driving. It's not that far off, I suspect that HK just didn't install the right kit.

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    The first comment on the SCMP page summarizes things nice and succinctly..

    Electric taxis failed because they are BYD's. Amsterdam's using Tesla and what a success!

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    Original Post Deleted
    I'd imagine places you would spend a bit of time - traffic lights and junctions - car parks - motorway rest areas etc. Start with focussed areas first and expand as the demand rises.

    I suspect that when the electric light was invented people stood there and said how ridiculous it would be to imagine a wire into every house.....

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    @Rob2020 - I suspect that there is a lot more to it than that.

    Some of the Tesla owners I know have had teething problems with their cars too - one in particular was sent off to the US and returned 3 months later. And this car is driven may be 50-80 kms a day. Servicing queues can be up to two months long - no cheap(er) alternatives to official Tesla service.

    I don't think the Tesla is a suitable car for your regular HK taxi and the taxi driver in question.


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    The impractical hk government fucked up the perfect BYD E6 taxi opportunity. For it to work practically in the eyes of the taxi industry, a battery swap service at key service station locations dotted conveniently around the place, would have been a no brainer. Expecting 18,000 taxis to use fast chargers when the infrastructure doesnt exist and difficult to install, was an of sheer fucktardery.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Skyhook:
    The impractical hk government fucked up the perfect BYD E6 taxi opportunity. For it to work practically in the eyes of the taxi industry, a battery swap service at key service station locations dotted conveniently around the place, would have been a no brainer. Expecting 18,000 taxis to use fast chargers when the infrastructure doesnt exist and difficult to install, was an of sheer fucktardery.
    I agree. This would have been an excellent idea.

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    Quote Originally Posted by HK_Katherine:
    If EV technology in cars is going to take off, this is where the innovation has to take place. I was at a talk by Tesla in Australia a few months back, and they were talking about quick charging technology (existing technology that they are installing) that would allow car drivers to charge at motorway services while they went in for a cup of coffee - so 10-20 minute charge cycles that then allowed a few hundred km more of driving. It's not that far off, I suspect that HK just didn't install the right kit.
    Your talking about the Tesla superchargers, right? Hong Kong is way way ahead of Australia on this. In HK, there are 17 supercharger locations now, each location having up to 8 chargers. Just around me, they are in Olympian City One, Elements, Festival Walk. They allow Tesla owners to drive in, go for a coffee or supermarket, and 30 minutes later the car is 80% charged which should go for around 300 - 400km (a whole month of driving). This is one reason why Tesla is so popular in Hong Kong, free charging while you are out shopping and you dont need to install charging equipment at your home.

    In contrast, Australia is way behind. Sydney has two locatiosn (in Lower North Shore and Pyrmont), Melbourne has one (Richmond) and there are a few in the countyside between Sydney and Melbourne so you can drive between both cities and charge along the way. But other cities such as Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide have zero.

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