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Our News
Electric Bike
Look up seeing a clear sky with cloud floating in the air, while having your feet stepping on fine sand like a carpet, all these are not slogan from the Maldives' tourism association. No need to take a ride to Indian Ocean, such beautiful scene can also be found around us. In Hong Kong, over 80% of carbon monoxide and respirable suspended particulates are coming from emission of road transport. In order to enjoy a clear blue sky, cutting emission is the most direct way to do so. And the answer to achieve this goal is the promotion of environmental-friendly electric car.
Electric car may sound unfamiliar to many Hong Kong people. Questions like how to recharge and how to calculate the recharging fee, are even further way from our day-to-day lives. However, riding electric bike is already a prevailing trend for Mainlanders. Electric bike, generally speaking, is a bicycle powered by electricity. It is a kind of electric car, with an outlook more or less the same as a normal bicycle. When there is no power supply, you can still ride it with your own feet.
In Mainland China, an electric bike rider can be a smart business guy with suit, a mother who is going to supermarket, or a young and charming fashionable lady. Last year, 21 million electric bikes are purchased in the Mainland, while only 9.4 million motor cars are being sold. According to the report of Times Magazine, although there are 25 million motor cars running across the country, the number of electric bikes are 4 times more than motor car. China has literally become the biggest market of this green vehicle around the world!
One may ask why electric bike is so popular in China? After all, it's all about money. To buy a motor bike powered by petrol, it takes around 5,000 to 8,000 RMB, while an electric bike only cost 1,500 to 2,500 RMB. A battery-producer in the Mainland estimates that, to travel for a 60-km journey, only 1 RMB is enough for electric bike. But for a motor bike using diesel fuel, the cost would be 16 times more.
In Chiayi, Taiwan, in order to promote carbon reduction and healthy lifestyle, the Environmental Protection Bureau subsidizes every local citizen around 750 Hong Kong dollars to buy electric bike. According to the Bureau's findings, motor bike needs 1 litre of petrol to finish a 50-km travel, which creates 2.2 kg of carbon dioxide. For the same distance travel, an electric bike only needs 2 kilowatt hour that emits 1.3 kg of carbon dioxide. That explains why using electric bike can help saving energy and reducing carbon emission at the same time.
Like electric car, electric bike also need to solve the problem of recharging. There are many types of battery for electric bike, with different pricings and life-spans. In fact, the recharging of electric bike should be more convenient when comparing with electric car. Luckily, recharge station will become more and more popular in Hong Kong. In the coming year, CLP will set up recharge stations in 10 car parks operated by The Link and Wilson Parking. On the other hand, the government had already formed a task force, studying the power supply for electric car. One of the plans is to set up recharge gear in government's buildings, with the supplementary of the recharge-at-home technology. In that case, recharge should no longer be a question for both electric car and bike anymore.
Imagine one day, people ride on electric bikes instead of taking taxi or mini-bus, arrive at the MTR station in just a few minutes time and then go to work. In the evening, they go back home by electric bikes, take out the battery and recharge, which is as simple as recharging the cell-phone battery nowadays. Hong Kong, for sure, can enjoy a good air quality! So next time when you are thinking of Maldives, look up and you will see the same clear blue sky right above your head.