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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2020-12-03 07:00
Last update date: 2020-12-03 07:00
The government has established the "Green Transport Pilot Fund" in 2011 to encourage the transportation industry to experiment with emission reduction vehicles.
The Environmental Protection Department has recently released two test reports on single-deck electric buses under the plan, stating that the operators are very dissatisfied with the performance of the buses, especially the buses often break down, need repairs, and fail to carry passengers for a long time.
Electric bus trials have repeatedly hit the rocks in Hong Kong and it is difficult to spread.
However, difficulties should not be an excuse to give up research and development, but rather a driving force. The government should lead the industry to continue to develop electric buses through the selection of higher quality manufacturers and independent research and development. Hong Kong should not be absent from the development of electric vehicles and automation. Trend.
Two single-deck electric buses were tested in Discovery Bay from January 2015 to December 2016. The manufacturer is Shandong Yixing "China Dragon".
The operator, Discovery Bay Transport Services, arranges electric buses to compare with traditional diesel buses.
The report stated that the operators were very dissatisfied with the performance of electric buses, such as the poor quality and instability of batteries, air conditioners, and compressors. During the first year of trial operation, they frequently broke down and repaired, making it difficult to operate daily.
Although the fuel cost and carbon dioxide emissions of electric buses are lower than those of diesel buses, the two electric buses have been out of service for an average of one year, which is far more than the diesel bus's less than two weeks. The saved fuel costs cannot make up for the fare loss.
Among the China Dragon electric buses tested by Discovery Bay Transport Services Ltd., one of them was unable to operate for 437 working days during the two-year test period. (Screenshot of the report)
With such a performance, it is indeed difficult to attract operators to continue to use electric buses, and this is not the first time that electric buses have hit a rock in Hong Kong.
Taking the same manufacturer Shandong Yixing as an example, taking into account the two trials from 2017 to 2019 and 2013 to 2015, the performance is not as good as diesel minibuses, especially because of the high number of lost operating days and insufficient battery capacity Cope with daily operations.
As for franchised buses, KMB, Citybus and NWFB have tried to use different brands of electric buses, but they are also subject to low endurance. The battery will decline soon after use, the service time is less than that of diesel buses, and some have to be returned to the original factory. For maintenance, active buses can only take short-distance and more routes on Heping Road.
EPA can do more
The government has explained that there are many roads in Hong Kong and buses are fully air-conditioned, and consume more power than other places, especially in summer, which impairs the endurance. Insufficient spare parts will also prolong the maintenance period.
This argument is to attribute operational problems to the external environment. As for the quality of bus parts, it is rarely mentioned.
It must be known that the public has a large demand for buses. If the parts cannot withstand the long-term operation every year and every day, it is easy to wear out.
The Environmental Protection Department should give more information on the quality of the bus before the trial operation for reference.
Electric buses lack outstanding results in Hong Kong and lag behind major cities such as Shenzhen and London. Operators of various sizes are deterred from expanding the scale of electric buses.
The five franchised bus companies introduced 36 electric buses before and after, and the number of vehicles is only a small percentage of the number of nearly 6,000 buses.
It has been pointed out that almost all of the large and small buses introduced by Hong Kong are from the Mainland, which has led to accusations that 180 million yuan of public money was used to purchase crude goods from the Mainland.
Although the mainland is the main producer of electric buses, manufacturers in other countries such as South Korea are also exploring the electric bus market, including double-decker electric buses.
When purchasing buses, the Environmental Protection Department may wish to invite more manufacturers to bid, shop around and select products suitable for Hong Kong.
Earlier, the government approved 180 million yuan to fully subsidize five bus companies to purchase 36 single-deck electric buses.
(Profile picture)
Should not give up local R&D
Zero-emission vehicles are the general trend, and various regions are vying to develop and lead the industry.
In addition to the introduction of foreign electric vehicles, Hong Kong should also re-develope and use electric buses on its own. The products can best meet local needs and can even export technology to share in the market.
In fact, the Productivity Council had already developed a single-deck low-floor electric bus as early as November 2015, but self-immolated one month later.
The investigation report showed that the fire was caused by man-made operation problems. Perhaps the bureau was worried that the outside world lacked confidence in the product, and there was no hearing about the resumption of production since then.
There are also private companies that have developed electric buses in Hong Kong and have already driven them in other places, but there is no service in Hong Kong.
The first "Hong Kong brand" electric bus developed by the HKPC completed the research and development process at the end of November 2015, but it suddenly caught fire only a month later.
(Provided by Productivity Council)
The Secretary for the Environment, Wong Kam-sing, revealed on Wednesday (2nd) that the first roadmap for the popularization of electric vehicles will be launched in the first quarter of next year. Since there are people in Hong Kong involved in the development of electric buses, the Environment Bureau should actively contact operators and public and private developers to popularize electric buses. , And try to remove obstacles.
When the "landing" of electric buses has a period of time, it is believed that all sectors will have greater motivation to solve problems such as charging and maintenance. Hong Kong people are expected to enjoy the benefits of electric buses as soon as possible.
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