Professor Zhixi Wan

14 January 2026

Electric vehicle (EV) charging technology is in a phase of rapid iterative development. Early alternating current (AC) slow charging is already on the way out, while direct current (DC) fast charging standards have become an entry-level feature. With the advancement of megawatt-level charging systems, peak power has even reached the threshold of one megawatt. However, the costs for power capacity expansion, cable laying, hardware procurement, and ongoing operations can result in a payback period of up to five to eight years, or even longer in Hong Kong, where land costs are extremely high.

An intractable contradiction has arisen between rapidly-upgrading charging technologies and equipment and the long payback period of heavy fixed-asset infrastructure investments. As a result, like most other EV markets around the world, Hong Kong is also faced with the problem of a mixed and overlapping deployment of slow and fast chargers.

Zeroing in on charging demand

Driven by the SAR Government’s strong measures, including first registration tax concessions for EVs under the “One-for-One Replacement” Scheme, the number of electric private cars in Hong Kong has seen a dramatic increase. According to the Transport Department’s Monthly Traffic and Transport Digest, the share of EVs among private cars has surged from 1.58% at the end of 2019 to 14.96% in 2025, with the total number exceeding 130,000.

In contrast, as of mid-2025, there were only 15,000 public chargers serving this huge fleet of EVs. Frequent “fully occupied” alerts on the public-charger app have become a source of helpless frustration for many local car owners. In the face of this thorny issue of long waits for charging, one straightforward solution would be to build more and faster charging facilities to shorten car owners’ waiting time for each charging.

The daily average driving distance of private cars in Hong Kong is merely around 30 km (with an annual average mileage of 11,080 km). For most registered private cars, one full charge is enough to meet the usual commuting needs of more than a week. Every day, about 19,000 EVs require recharging, yet the overall capacity of existing public chargers is far above this figure. Hence, rather than absolute limits on quantity and power, it is the structural complexity in the spatiotemporal distribution of charging demand and supply that provides the key to making a breakthrough.

Table   Full load capacity of public chargers in Hong Kong

Source: Environmental Protection Department and the author’s median price estimates based on the Shell Recharge price list

For the vast majority of car owners, their anxiety over daily charging stems more from the uncertainty of whether they can charge when they need to, i.e. an issue of “accessibility” than purely speed. Accordingly, policy and market priorities should shift from focusing solely on shorter charging times to enhancing both the “accessibility” and “convenience” of charging services. A deeper understanding of charging behaviour, combined with geographic locations and time patterns, are instrumental in identifying the conditions that make charging optimally convenient.

Implementing a locally-tailored strategy

For car owners with a fixed car parking space, the most ideal and economical way to recharge their vehicles is doing it overnight while the cars are parked. The EV-charging at Home Subsidy Scheme launched by the SAR Government aims to subsidize the installation of charging infrastructure in existing private residential car parks to meet this demand. A standard 7 kW medium-speed AC charger can replenish over 50 kWh of electricity during eight hours pf overnight parking, equivalent to a driving range of 250 to 300 km, sufficient to satisfy several days of commuting needs for the huge majority of users. In practice, the main challenges encountered by users are issues of parking space ownership and “access rights” for the smooth installation of chargers (see Note 1).

Commercial centres, large shopping malls, and office buildings constitute another important charging scenario. Unlike the “charge and go” model at petrol stations, users tend to stay much longer at such venues, ranging from one or two hours for shopping or dining to eight or nine hours for work. At present, many property developers have already installed fast charging facilities, but the fast-charging model may not align well with users’ behaviour patterns. First, the need for long-duration parking and the premium-priced fast-charging model lead to higher charging costs. As users have to keep an eye on the duration of their charger use or may even be forced to interrupt their activities to move their cars, this contravenes the original intention of the business venues to encourage longer customer dwell times. Second, for venue operators, chargers often remain occupied even after a vehicle is full charged, leaving expensive power modules sitting idle and diminishing asset utilization.

From consumers’ point of view, a more logical strategy would be to install more lower-cost medium-speed chargers at venues where users stay for longer periods, and to adopt pricing based on power consumption. This would not only allow more vehicles to be served at the same time, while lowering the power load and infrastructure investment for each parking space, but also better synchronize with users’ shopping and work routines, thus easing their range anxiety.

Turning existing petrol stations into supercharging stations has emerged as another development direction in recent years. The SAR Government has made it clear that it will strive to promote this transition: “converting the conventional petrol filling stations (“PFSs”) into fast charging stations (“FCSs”) and retrofitting existing PFSs to install fast charging facilities (about 300 FCSs to be provided by end-2027)” (see Note 2). This model mirrors the refuelling habits of traditional fuel-powered vehicles, aiming to complete most of the charging process within a short period, with high power output and rapid turnover as its core features.

It is indispensable for certain user groups, e.g. commercial vehicles such as taxis, ride-hailing cars, and light trucks, which generate stable, frequent, and predictable “baseline traffic”, as well as private car owners without a fixed parking space who rely entirely on public charging network. For these users, time is money. The Government will allocate $300 million to launch the Fast Charger Incentive Scheme, funding 3,000 fast chargers to support approximately 160,000 EVs. The fast chargers will be rolled out gradually from 2026 until the end of 2028, a move expected to effectively address this issue.

Forging a dynamic data-driven future

Looking ahead, Hong Kong will need a heterogeneous charging infrastructure network, precisely configured to meet diverse scenarios and user needs—blending fast and slow charging with targeted alignment to market demand. The advancement of the charging network should enter an era of refined “operational deployment” from the rough, extensive “land-grabbing” stage. It is unnecessary to install expensive supercharging piles at every street corner. Rather, the goal should be to create a heterogeneous, tiered, and highly intelligent energy replenishment ecosystem.

As the potential for expanding physical space approaches its limits, further gains in efficiency will have to rely on the flow of information. In future Hong Kong, each public charger will not merely be a power output terminal, but also a node for data exchange. Leveraging dynamic information to balance supply and demand―the distinct advantage of intelligent charging―will be the focus of my article in this column next week.

Note 1: Zhixi Wan, “‘Home-First’ Policy vs Real-World Charging Needs: Hong Kong as a Global EV Showroom Series”, Hong Kong Economic Journal, 10 December 2025

Note 2: https://impact.hkubs.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/291857-ea20250120cb1-47-8-c.pdf