Macau, China, Feb. 7, 2025 (Lusa) - A Macau-based environmentalist has told Lusa that it is "absolutely impossible" for the Chinese semi-autonomous region to meet the national target for electric vehicles of 45% of new sales by 2027.
At the beginning of January, China's central government released a list of environmental objectives, which includes an upward revision of the previous target for electric vehicles, which was 20% by 2025 In the second half of last year, electric vehicles already accounted for more than half of new car sales, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.
In Macau, 31.4% of new vehicles registered in 2024 were electric, according to official figures.
But Joe Chan Chon Meng, the president of the Macau Green Student Union, emphasised that vehicles powered by fossil fuel still represent the overwhelming proportion of the territory's car fleet.
At the end of December, Macau had a total of 253,182 vehicles, of which 12,302 vehicles (4.8%) were existing electric vehicles, according to the Traffic Affairs Bureau (DSAT).
Nevertheless, Chan emphasised that in recent years the government has implemented several measures to promote cleaner transport, including the creation of more charging spaces for electric vehicles.
By the end of 2023, Macau had some 2,100 electric charging points for cars and 500 for motorbikes, the Environmental Protection Services Bureau (DSPA) said on its website.
In 2023, the authorities launched a financial support plan to scrap obsolete motorbikes and replace them with new electric motorbikes, worth up to 8,000 patacas (€963).
According to DSAT, in 2024 Macau had 128,542 motorbikes, of which only 3.5% were electric, an increase of 1.4 percentage points on the previous year.
Chan suggested that the authorities start by restricting heavy goods vehicles, particularly those used in construction, and public transport, "since Zhuhai [the mainland city neighbouring Macau] and the surrounding areas use natural gas and electricity."
On Wednesday, DSAT officials told Chinese-language broadcaster Radio Macau that there are 929 new energy buses in operation, representing more than 92% of the total, while the proportion of more polluting buses has dropped to around 3%.
As for taxis, there are 210 electric-only taxis in circulation, representing around 11.9% of the total number, while hybrid taxis account for around 86.2% of the total.
"However, when it comes to highly polluting vehicles such as lorries and heavy motorbikes, the authorities still haven't set a very clear timetable and deadline for phasing them out, so the pollution [they cause] is very high," said the environmentalist.
JW/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
