If you haven’t done so, I do suggest you to read my previous blog post, How much does it costs to charge my Tesla in Hong Kong?, before reading this post as it should make more sense.
100% Savings. This is the short answer.
As mentioned, public chargers in Hong Kong provided by two electric company in Hong Kong are free of charge until further notice. Of course, they are all located in shopping malls parking or public parking lots which all require an hourly fee. There are no free public parking in Hong Kong. However, there are some public housing parking that would give free parking to electric vehicles using their charging facilities. This is a small number though. As Hong Kong government is actively promoting more electric vehicles on the streets, this scheme should last for a period of time.
But I want to know the actual $ dollar savings on gasoline.
(Reference: USD$1 = HKD$7.76 / Euro€1 = HKD$9.25)
You may or may not know, Hong Kong has the most expensive gasoline price in the world.
The price is HKD$18.94 per liter of standard unleaded gasoline at SHELL in Hong Kong today. This price includes a HKD$6.06 per liter government duty tax. I believe this is at 95 Octane as this is the lowest Octane level SHELL provides in Hong Kong. The government tax is also one reason why gasoline costs so much in Hong Kong. This is mainly to deter people from driving with Hong Kong being a small territory and densely populated. Driving in Hong Kong is considered a luxury rather than a necessity. The government tax on new vehicles is extremely high as well. This is for another blog post. There are about 5 gasoline providers in Hong Kong. SHELL is one of the most expensive but the price will be within HKD$3. There are also discounts cards in all of these gasoline providers. Again, sometimes you can get as much as HKD$2 to HKD$3 discounts on particular days.
My previous combustion engine car was a Lexus CT200H hybrid. It is rated at 5.6L/100Km officially. My fuel costs and driving style accounts to around HKD$1.20 per Km on a perfect day. I refuel around every 500Km and it will costs me around HKD$600 for every refill. The price of gasoline is a bit cheaper two years ago around HKD$16.00 per liter let’s say.
The math will be: HKD$600 / HKD$16.00 = 37.5 liter fuel / 500 km * 100 = 7.6 L/100Km. (31MPG). This is Hong Kong and lots of traffic jams and city driving and air conditioning on 365 days a year means a not very good fuel economy.
So what’s the actual $ dollar savings when I drive my Tesla Model 3?
In my previous post with my average “mileage” for driving my Model 3 for the past 50km is at 149Wh/km. This equates to HKD$0.153 per Km if I charge at home. Please see the calculation at my previous post.
This equates to 88% of fuel savings. (Charging at home) The high percentage is mainly the costs of gasoline in Hong Kong is the most expensive in the world while electricity costs isn’t.
2 Comments
Karan
I would consider it a very good comparison. You’re lucky to have home charging available. But i believe this deviates me to look for gasoline options if I am charging out all the time. Given the convenience of petrol stations and no parking fee / stress to charge the car / cost to charge outside, tbe benefits of having a electric car are very low to none.
Calvin
Hi Karan, you are correct. That is why the first question to ask if you want to switch over to driving an EV is do you have a space to charge. The benefit is solely saving on gasoline costs if you drive A LOT. If you drive once in a blue moon, then I agree there is no reason to drive an EV.