Fuelled by Demand
As Asia becomes a significant driving force in the adoption of electric vehicles, Tatler looks at the pros and cons of going battery-powered
At the 17th World Car Awards in New York in April, Hyundai stole the show. The South Korean carmaker’s Ioniq 5 won in three categories: World Car of the Year, World Electric Vehicle of the Year and World Car Design of the Year. The recognition was not only a win for Asian carmakers, but also signalled endorsement of an industry rapidly evolving to phase out internal combustion engines (ICES). “Our game-changing electric vehicle (EV) has made a strong impact on increasingly eco-conscious and demanding consumers around the world, and its success supports the acceleration of electrification of the automotive industry,” said president and CEO Jaehoon Chang in a statement.
With 2.45 million sales in 2020, Asia-pacific is becoming a significant driving force in the adoption of electric vehicles, largely thanks to mainland China. With 1.34 million, the country accounted for the highest number of EVS sold in the world in 2020, due to the similar cost of EVS and ICES. Since Tesla cars first went on sale in Singapore in July 2021 and became the top-selling saloon within two months, the city state has made a great push in EV adoption, boosting charging provision and trialling electric transport—from taxis and buses to postal service scooters and Grab bikes. However, Japan and South Korea accounted for only 31,000 and 54,000 EV sales respectively, which is being put down to the cars costing twice as much as non-electric models.
As well as being more sustainable than petrol or diesel-fuelled automobiles, EVS are often a more cost-effective option; in Hong Kong, for example, the government has offered generous tax breaks since 1994 to incentivise their purchase. While there is still a definite cachet attached to owning souped-up sports cars and luxury SUVS, in many places owning an electric vehicle, particularly a Tesla, has become synonymous not only with practicality but also with status and virtue.
By late last year in Hong Kong, there were about 21,000 passenger electric cars on the roads. Thanks to tax incentives, relatively cheap maintenance and running costs, and a growing network of charging points (not to mention the city’s relatively small size, which lessens any qualms around range), Hong Kong has led the adoption of electric vehicles in Asia: by the end of 2020, one out of every eight new private cars was an EV, according to the government’s 2021-22 budget. During a visit in 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk hailed Hong Kong as a “beacon city for electric vehicles” that could “serve as an example to the rest of the world”. His company has the largest market share in Hong Kong, at about 80 per cent, but there is room, too, for other
manufacturers, including Porsche, Audi, Nissan and Mercedes, as traditional carmakers continue to add EVS to their stables, fuelled by demand.
In Hong Kong, the government is targeting no new registrations of fossil fuel cars, including hybrids, by 2035 or earlier to help meet its target of zero vehicular emissions before 2050, in tandem with its target of achieving carbon neutrality in the same period. Last year’s Roadmap on the Popularisation of Electric Vehicles in Hong Kong report set a goal to get at least 150,000 parking spaces in private residential and commercial buildings equipped with electric car chargers by 2025, subsidised by initiatives like a HK$2 billion (US$255 million) EV home-charging scheme, launched in October 2020.
Singapore’s Land Transport Authority has set a roadmap to electrification, which includes adoption incentives, such as lowering road tax for EVS and creating 60,000 charging points by 2030. Echoing its neighbour, in its 2022 Budget, Malaysia announced EVS would be exempt from tax and owners would get a personal tax relief of up to RM2,500 (US$573) for associated costs. In April, the Philippines’ president Rodrigo Duterte signed into law measures for regulating and developing the country’s EV industry, targeting a 10 per cent increase in the number of EVS by 2040, towards the goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent from 2020 to 2030, according to Eco-business.
John Bower represents Charged HK, a charity promoting private and public uptake of electric vehicles through lobbying and education. An EV owner since 2014, the engineer has watched the industry evolve— from the dominance of Toyota’s Prius hybrid a decade ago to Tesla’s rise and the subsequent surge in EVS brought to market by traditional manufacturers, to the government and businesses trialling various electric transport schemes. “We really want to reduce pollution, so we promote EVS,” he says. He counts off common concerns about electric: that batteries require metals mined in polluting ways from conflict areas; that they merely move CO2 pollution out of cities; that charging is a hassle; that the batteries are expensive to replace; that the process involved in manufacturing an EV cancels out its green credentials once it’s on the road. The industry isn’t perfect, he admits, but unlike cars powered by fossil fuels, which will never be sustainable, EVS are a logical direction for the industry to evolve towards. “The issues are being considered and addressed. EVS are getting better and better for the environment, and the technology is improving. As power generation switches from coal burning to less Co2-intensive forms, like solar and even nuclear, the future of EVS is bright, and it’s evolving,” Bower argues.
Car enthusiast—or self-described petrolhead—carson Chan became one of the first Tesla owners in Hong Kong when he purchased a Roadster in 2007 before
switching to a model S in 2012. However, as his family grew, he sold the Tesla and didn’t repurchase, partly due to the driving experience—a common complaint about EVS is that they are not as exciting or luxurious as some petrol cars. “When I’m in one, it doesn’t trigger the same type of emotion as when I’m in a classic car. There’s just not the adrenaline; I’m just not excited. It’s quiet, it’s comfortable, it’s reliable—it’s kind of like having a digital watch and a mechanical watch.”
Cities like Shenzhen have already shown that the rapid conversion of public transport to electric is possible with political willpower. However, for those who insist on continuing to drive, Tesla has shown that the way to market EVS is to glamorise them as a futuristic technology, paving the way for other luxury car companies to follow suit, making ICE cars feel outmoded, and driving innovation in greener manufacturing and more efficient power generation that flows through to wider application.
“The technology becomes available when there’s a demand for it,” Bower says.
Chan adds: “This technology is all about the electric motor and the battery. And once it matures, you will see this being implemented not just in cars, but in vehicles from forklifts to planes—maybe even the Star Ferry.
“The future of the industry is electric: I’m a firm believer in that.”