LCQ16: Improving charging efficiency of public charging facilities
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Question:
It is reported that the number of electric vehicles (EVs) in Hong Kong has grown fourfold over the past four years, but the growth of public chargers has lagged behind, recording only about a 1.5-fold increase over the past five years, with the vehicle-to-charger ratio having widened to about 10.5:1. Over 60 per cent of existing public chargers are still medium chargers which take a few hours to charge, and there is a severe lack of quick charging facilities for full electric light buses in districts such as Kowloon East and Kwun Tong. Some members of the industry have suggested making good use of the capacity shown in CLP's Power Availability Maps and prioritising the expansion of fast charging infrastructure at public and metered car parks. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers and percentages of parking spaces with fast chargers (100 kW or above) and medium chargers in public and private car parks in Hong Kong in the past three years; according to the territory-wide Power Availability Maps, of the respective numbers and percentages of parking spaces in public and on-street metered car parks that currently have sufficient power supply and space for the retrofitting of fast chargers;
(2) whether the authorities will actively consider selecting metered car parks with good power supply conditions as pilot sites to integrate metered parking and fast charging functions; if so, of the specific timetable; if not, the reasons for that;
(3) whether the authorities will consider positioning charging parking spaces as "short-stay energy replenishment bays", introducing smart management at metered and public charging parking spaces, implementing a "charge-and-go" mechanism, and imposing a surcharge on vehicles that overstay; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(4) given the severe lack of quick charging facilities for commercial vehicles (e.g. full electric light buses), of the specific support measures put in place by the authorities; whether the authorities will review the Electricity Ordinance (Cap. 406), roadside marking guidelines or land legislation to streamline the approval process, and introduce market forces to develop commercial and public fast charging networks; and
(5) of the number of applications received under the Fast Charger Incentive Scheme so far, the number of Acknowledgement Notices issued and the number of chargers involved; the main bottlenecks constraining projects that have been approved but not yet completed; whether the authorities will set up a dedicated interdepartmental task force to implement "one-stop" parallel approvals, so as to streamline the processes of marking, lease modification and power grid connection?
Reply:
President,
To achieve zero vehicular emissions before 2050, in line with Hong Kong's commitment to strive for carbon neutrality in the same timeframe, the Government has been actively promoting the popularisation of electric vehicles (EVs), with remarkable results. As at end-September 2026, there were over 180 000 EVs in Hong Kong, more than six times the figure in 2021. Currently, more than seven out of every ten newly registered private cars are EVs, the growth rate of which ranks among the top in the world.
Unlike many places or cities, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government supports EV charging not solely by building chargers, but also by promoting charging facilities at private parking spaces. Over the past five years, under the Government's drive, the number of private parking spaces equipped with charging facilities has increased from 23 000 in 2021 by approximately six times to around 160 600 in September 2026, offering greater convenience to EV users. Charging technologies also continue to advance and diversify. For instance, the megawatt flash-charging technology that has begun to be deployed in Hong Kong is pushing charging speed towards achieving "same speed for petrol and electric refuelling", allowing fewer chargers to serve more EVs. A single charger deploying megawatt flash-charging technology can support more than 100 EVs. Coupled with the emerging battery-swapping technology, the "vehicle-to-charger ratio" is no longer an effective indicator of whether charging facilities are sufficient.
Apart from charging facilities at private parking spaces, Hong Kong currently has 18 090 public chargers. The overall charging facilities can already support more than 290 000 EVs. According to information from charging service operators, the average utilisation rate of fast or quick public chargers in different districts across Hong Kong currently stands at around 10 per cent to 20 per cent, indicating that the overall charging facilities are sufficient at present.
Moving forward, the Government will adopt fast chargers as the backbone of the public charging network to provide quick top-up charging for vehicle owners who are unable to charge their EVs for prolonged periods at their residences or workplaces. As announced in the 2026 Policy Address, our target is to increase the number of fast chargers to 5 000 within five years, supporting some 250 000 more EVs, and to reach about 10 000 in 2035. By then, these chargers, together with the estimated total of nearly 300 000 charging spaces, will be able to support the charging needs of more than 800 000 EVs collectively.
Having consulted the Transport Department, my response to the question raised by Hon Hung is as follows:
(1) and (5) The number and percentage of public EV chargers provided by the Government and the private sector over the past three years are set out in the Annex. As aforementioned, we are promoting a public charging network with fast chargers as the backbone. The $300 million Fast Charger Incentive Scheme launched in July 2025 aims to leverage private market forces to encourage private charging operators to provide more public fast chargers. The Power Availability Maps were primarily prepared in support of the Scheme, with a view to providing reference for operators interested in offering charging services to facilitate identification of suitable locations for installing fast chargers.
As at end-September 2026, Acknowledgement Notices have been issued in respect of 792 fast chargers. Applicants are required to put the chargers into operation within 12 months after approval. One hundred and twenty-four of these chargers have already commenced operation. The remaining approved applications will progressively come into operation upon completion of the tendering process for charging services, electricity connection and power distribution works, as well as the necessary planning or land use exemption applications and other preparatory work.
Meanwhile, the Environment and Ecology Bureau has been assisting applicants in following up with relevant government departments and the power companies on applications relating to land leases, planning and grid connection, and has been actively co-ordinating to expedite the approval process.
In light of the latest developments in charging technologies, we refined the Fast Charger Incentive Scheme on October 1 this year by relaxing the application criteria and simplifying the application requirements for mobile charging equipment (including mobile charging robots) and battery energy storage systems. The market response to the refined Scheme has been positive. We are currently processing applications involving 200 chargers.
(2) In response to the demand of motorists and commercial vehicles for parking spaces, the Government provides metered parking spaces at roadside for short-term parking and has all along been committed to expediting the turnover of metered parking spaces through various measures to meet the short-term parking needs of drivers. In determining the provision of metered parking spaces, a range of factors need to be taken into account, including the parking needs of different drivers, the potential impact on surrounding traffic and spatial constraints. At present, we have no plan for large-scale installation of charging facilities at roadside metered parking spaces. As regards metered public car parks, the Government plans to use the newly constructed Tung Chung Chung Yan Road Ma Wan Chung Public Car Park and Tai O Yim Tin Public Car Park as pilot sites in the near future to explore the feasibility of providing charging facilities in metered public car parks. The Government will closely monitor the actual operation and utilisation of the above public car parks and, with reference to the actual operational effectiveness, review in a timely manner the feasibility of providing additional charging facilities at roadside public parking spaces and the way forward.
(3) At present, the Government has put in place relevant mechanisms at suitable venues, such as individual petrol-cum-charging stations and fast charging stations that are converted from petrol filling stations (PFSs), to impose additional charges on EVs that remain in the charging spaces after being fully or nearly fully charged. For example, at Rumsey Street Car Park, if non-EVs are found parked in EV-dedicated spaces, the car park operator will clamp the vehicles and the owners concerned will be required to pay an unclamping fee. We also encourage service operators under the Fast Charger Incentive Scheme to impose additional charges on persons who continue to occupy charging spaces after the completion of charging, so as to promote the turnover and utilisation rate of the charging facilities.
Operators of charging facilities generally determine their operational models based on a variety of factors, including the original purpose of the charging spaces (for example, charging spaces in shopping malls do not necessarily require a "leave once fully-charged" arrangement) and the charging speeds supported by both the charging facilities and the EVs. Generally speaking, medium chargers installed at parking spaces in car parks serve a supplementary purpose, allowing EVs to top up while parked. Parking spaces equipped with fast chargers are primarily intended for charging purposes, and operators generally require EVs to "leave once fully-charged" in order to increase revenue.
(4) As analysed in the Updated Version of the Hong Kong Roadmap on Popularisation of Electric Vehicles announced in February this year, the development of electric commercial vehicles has been relatively slow at present, mainly because the technology is not yet mature. Many commercial vehicle models available in the local market still cannot fully meet operators' needs due to various reasons, such as substantially higher purchase costs compared with diesel vehicles, limited driving range, lower payload capacity and longer charging time, and have yet to reach the stage of large-scale application.
Nevertheless, we will progressively promote the electrification of commercial vehicles. The Environment and Ecology Bureau has established a working group with the trade to assist in introducing more price-competitive EV models suitable for use in Hong Kong, starting with public light buses as the pilot, with a view to encouraging vehicle owners to switch to EVs. On the other hand, in addition to the Fast Charger Incentive Scheme, the Government has implemented various major measures in expanding charging facilities, including:
(i) progressively converting PFSs into fast charging stations and retrofitting chargers at existing PFSs, with the aim of providing up to about 180 fast chargers at around 60 existing PFSs progressively from this year onwards, which is expected to support nearly 10 000 EVs. In addition, the Government has identified eight PFS sites across the territory for development into fast charging stations, which can collectively provide over 150 chargers and are expected to support about 8 000 EVs. We have also set out operational requirements for petrol-cum-charging stations/fast charging stations, including that operators shall not charge electric taxis (e-taxis) and electric public light buses (e-PLBs) higher than the charging ceiling price published monthly by the Environmental Protection Department, and that operators shall reserve a certain number of chargers and parking spaces for e-taxis and e-PLBs between 3pm and 6pm each day, in order to provide convenience to the taxi and public light bus trades;
(ii) supporting franchised bus operators in installing charging facilities at new or existing bus depots and opening up the EV charging facilities at their bus depots and parking places in various districts for public use during daytime;
(iii) launching a $20 million fast charger scheme dedicated for commercial vehicles to encourage the trade to install commercial vehicle-dedicated fast chargers with an output power of at least 240 kW. We are drafting the framework of the new scheme and, following consultation with relevant stakeholders, will finalise the details and arrangements, including the subsidy amount and the number of chargers, with a view to announcing the details of the new scheme by the end of this year;
(iv) promoting the introduction of megawatt flash-charging technology and battery-swapping technology in Hong Kong to accelerate the popularisation of EVs, with the target of completing the first batch of projects within 2027. The primary target of enterprises promoting battery-swapping technology in Hong Kong is taxis;
(v) installing 50 fast chargers dedicated for e-taxis by the end of 2027 (capable of supporting about 300 e-taxis), of which 12 have already fully commenced operation and the remaining 38 will progressively come into operation from the end of this year;
(vi) establishing a working group with the two power companies to study the enhancement of the charging network infrastructure in Hong Kong, including examining ways to strengthen technical support for charging service operators and existing buildings. The two power companies have also been co-operating with the Government in promoting the installation of EV charging facilities in various types of existing buildings, including shopping mall car parks, and providing one-stop free assessment and technical support services covering project planning, electricity supply applications and technical advice for customers; and
(vii) actively promoting mobile charging robots, and connecting the transport trade and mobile charging robot operators to explore the use of charging robots for vehicle charging at locations where installation of conventional chargers is difficult.
Ends/Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Issued at HKT 12:35
Issued at HKT 12:35
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