Shenzhen is spearheading the ‘instant city’ campaign in the Greater Bay Area with its electric mobility revolution. As Luo Weiteng reports, Hong Kong has much to catch up in the EV race by taking the mainland’s cue through rapid innovation and prudent economic planning.

Since China reopened to the world with visa-free policies for various countries as COVID-19 dissipated two years ago, Li Anqi — a Shenzhen-based pilates instructor — has been hosting friends from around the globe.

From exquisite cuisine, the city’s sprawling public transport networks, and well-stocked shopping malls to perfectly manicured parks, the “wow” moments for Li’s guests are never-ending.

What amazes first-time visitors to China is that for a fast-growing megacity packed with 22 million people, Shenzhen is noticeably quiet.

“Electric buses glide by, hardly creating a sound. Taxis wind through avenues with a muted hum of tires against the asphalt. The unending roar of old combustion engines is now history,” says Li, who has lived in Shenzhen for more than a decade. “I realize such tranquility isn’t a given in metropolises elsewhere, most of which have their fair share of noise pollution, but are catching up in a quiet revolution of electric mobility.”

Tech powerhouse Shenzhen is a city with a green future. New-energy autos are 28.6 percent of all vehicles there, with nearly 1.3 million, according to Xie Haiming, director of the Shenzhen Xieli New Energy and Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center, a think tank.

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Shenzhen is mentioned in the same breath as Beijing and Shanghai, ranking alongside two of the nation’s top-tier cities in terms of the number of new energy vehicles. On a population ratio basis, the southern Guangdong city is at the front. Xie says Shenzhen boasts the world’s first and largest entirely electric bus fleet, and goes all-electric on taxis, including ride-hailing vehicles. More than 90 percent of garbage collection trucks and over 30 percent of dump trucks, lorries and cargo vans are electrified.

To keep Shenzhen’s electric vehicle fleet running, the city has built a robust charging infrastructure, including 65,000 fast and ultrafast charging pillars, and 354,000 slow charging piles.  

Separated by just a river from Hong Kong, Shenzhen’s breakneck pace of transforming itself into an electric-powered city is a source of inspiration for the special administrative region. “Shenzhen is really ahead in making all vehicles electric-driven, and Hong Kong, I think, is more than five years behind,” says Xie.

‘Late mover, fast follower’

However, latecomers aren’t total losers, and can still be competitive. Lawrence Iu Chun-yip, executive director at public policy think tank, Civic Exchange, says he believes there is much for Hong Kong to learn from Shenzhen and its mainland peers in seeking the most suitable technical and development route in the EV race.

When Shenzhen became a global pioneer in having its fully electric buses from 2017, the SAR began its EV takeoff a year later by incentivizing car owners to scrap fossil-fuel cars for new EVs.

By January, Hong Kong was home to 112,000 EVs — 12.4 percent of the total number of vehicles on the roads. Currently, 98 percent of locally registered EVs are privately owned, and nearly seven out of 10 newly registered private cars are electric, compared with just 6.3 percent in 2019. This takes Hong Kong closer to its target of eliminating combustion engine private cars by 2035, and phasing out diesel buses and other polluting vehicles.

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With Shenzhen’s public transport electrification putting the futuristic city in the driving seat of the country’s EV supremacy, Iu describes Hong Kong as a “late mover, yet fast follower” in making its public transport system emission-free. But the path to green public transport had a humble start. Of the existing 6,000 franchised buses in the SAR, only 1.4 percent are e-buses, while a mere 0.5 percent of 18,000 taxis are electrically operated.

There is every reason for buses and taxis to spearhead an EV revolution. With 11.5 million passenger journeys made each day on public transport in 2023, Hong Kong’s well-managed mass transit networks are its calling card on the world map, yet a carbon polluter. Public transport and heavy vehicles make up 80 percent of the transport system’s sizeable share of carbon emissions — roughly 20 percent of the city’s total and second only to power generation.

Funding hurdles

Despite the winds of change sweeping across Shenzhen, the status of electric buses and taxis as a green transport icon isn’t always assured elsewhere — many cities simply can’t afford to copy the Chinese boomtown and go all-in on mass transit.

Affordability is often cited among the hurdles in the mass electrification of vehicles. An e-bus is said to cost 50 percent more upfront than a conventional diesel bus. The HKSAR government has taken bold steps in funding the pursuit of cleaner, better road-going vehicles, with over HK$600 million ($77.2 million) allocated to purchase new buses and taxis, and HK$300 million to install more efficient chargers.

Taking in lower operation and maintenance costs, cheaper energy bills, environmental compliance and rapid technological advancement, the cost gap between electric and diesel buses is expected to narrow, according to the Environment and Ecology Bureau, saying there is a high chance Hong Kong’s existing bus fleet will gradually go electric without requiring further subsidy.

Prior to 2016, a 12-meter-long e-bus in Shenzhen was bought with a $150,000 government subsidy — more than half its price — according to Xue Lulu, senior associate and urban mobility lead at the World Resources Institute China. In Hong Kong, subsidies aren’t expected to cover more than 25 percent of the costs of replacing or acquiring vehicles.

Just as much of Shenzhen’s progress may be attributed to aggressive national and local government spending, it could be theoretically easy for some transport operators to kick-start their e-bus and e-taxi rollouts with subsidies. But what’s next? Fast deployment also relies on holistic planning and step-by-step execution, manufacturing capacity and infrastructure, says Xie.

“Shenzhen’s electric innovation lead has been a long time coming,” he says. “We already had supportive policies well in place in 2009, including subsidies, tax incentives, special road rights and ease of passage, and installation of charging facilities.”

What’s worth noting is the “stability and continuity” of policy, with timely adjustments and upgrades in line with ever-changing circumstances, says Xie, recalling Shenzhen’s overall planning of charging facilities in 2016 and an updated version in 2022 designed for supercharging facilities, putting the city’s green push on the fast lane.

Charging strategies

Indeed, the availability of charging stations is a big drag on cities elsewhere making the switch. This is especially true of battery-powered buses that are known for having a more limited range and their need to be charged without disrupting services.

Joseph Ma Ching-yuen, a Hong Kong urban planner and adviser to the CEO of the Saudi Public Transport Co, explains the economics behind Shenzhen’s choice of depot charging.

“As nighttime electricity costs one-fifth of those for daytime, we go for depot charging, with e-buses charged fully overnight,” says Ma, who’s also a former deputy general manager of Shenzhen Bus Group.

There’s no “one-size-fits-all approach”, he insists. Opportunity charging — the practice of charging a battery at available opportunities throughout the shift — for instance, may be another viable option.

“Once depot charging is adopted, depot configuration should come to the fore, with overall consideration of the parking spaces, the maneuvering of buses, and the interchangeability of different routing, be it long-distance, circular routes or last-mile shuttle services,” says Ma.

At the end of the day, going electric involves more than just buying sleek and modern e-buses. “It requires operators to buy the ‘right’ buses with their size aligned with charging facilities, and routing and operation changes needed too,” he adds.

Collaborative innovations

According to Xue, Shenzhen has adopted a type of e-bus with five-hour charging that can support 250 kilometers of driving, almost sustaining a full day’s operation. Meeting operational, financial and logistical challenges in electrifying buses is where collaboration and coordination come into play.

“Bus operators collaborate with charging infrastructure providers to furnish most of the bus routes with charging facilities. They also coordinate charging time with the operation schedule,” says Xue.

Ma can recall his childhood when his father took him to the northern New Territories to look toward Shenzhen. The once-sleepy fishing village’s reputation then was based purely on its geographical proximity to Hong Kong.

“The vibrant, young city has since grown up with a constellation of homegrown companies, in what could be a shared success shaping Shenzhen’s spirit and character as a mecca for entrepreneurs, innovators and tech firms,” he says.

Many household names have worked with local bus operators all the way along Shenzhen’s trek to being an EV powerhouse, says Ma. One of the most talked-about firms is BYD — the battery-company-turned-automaker that produces plug-in hybrids and pure-electric cars, as well as the world’s first mass-produced electric bus.

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BYD made a name for itself over a decade ago by supplying its home base Shenzhen and other EV pilot cities in China with electric buses and taxis.

A fleet of double-decker electric buses manufactured by BYD hit Hong Kong roads in 2023. The same year, the world’s largest EV producer signed a deal to get the city’s taxi industry on the EV bandwagon.

As policymakers, experts and urban planners take their cue from the oft-repeated story of China’s “instant city”, Xie points to indigenous innovation, an entire EV industry chain from batteries, motors to electronic controls, synergistic cooperation across sectors, and multi-scenario applications of the next new things as the key. “This ensures more targeted government support and a broader mix of business solutions that cities like Hong Kong may find hard to emulate.”

To reduce upfront investments, some bus operators in Shenzhen have leased vehicles from manufacturers. Unlike operators elsewhere that traditionally shoulder all financial risks incurred by mechanical breakdowns, operators in Shenzhen require manufacturers to provide a lifetime warranty for vehicles and batteries, as the latter can continuously innovate battery technologies, explains Xue.

There are also consumer habits and geography to consider. Hong Kong is known as a large consumer of air conditioning, probably 20 to 30 percent more than on the Chinese mainland. This sets the bar higher for the EV range, says Du Yonghai, chief innovation officer of the Hong Kong Productivity Council.

The SAR’s narrow roads and steep hills require a small turning circle and a short wheelbase of vehicles, necessitating more trial runs and model adjustments for e-buses. This especially includes the city’s signature heavier double-deckers that need more energy and bigger batteries for electrification, and agile minibuses, known for their speed and flexible service, that perform over 1.5 million passenger journeys each day across 4,000-plus routes.

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“What Shenzhen has done is on an incredible scale, but it can be hardly achieved by Hong Kong, at least, on the hardware side,” says Iu.

In his view, for a densely populated city with limited land, there should be a greater focus on software.

“With better information flow management, available charging spaces could be tracked, and drivers would be notified in real time. This is where Hong Kong’s strength genuinely lies,” he says.

Electrification, intelligence, connectivity and shared mobility sit at the core of the EV revolution. Intelligent connected vehicles have what it takes to be the next entry point in meaningful collaboration between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, says Xie, who expects an even bigger story unfolding in a mega project of zero-emission freight corridors across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

“Today, an industry consensus among the finest minds of Hong Kong and the mainland points to a complete industry chain in the making across the Greater Bay Area. What counts for Hong Kong is to position itself in the right place and at the right time to take our green campaign to the next level,” he says.  

Contact the writer at sophialuo@chinadailyhk.com