The government will cease registration of new conventional cars “in 2035 or earlier”, the Financial Secretary announced today in his budget speech, confirming Transit Jam’s story from earlier this month and paving the way to replace the city’s car fleet with electric vehicles.

Paul Chan Mo-po said key measures of the upcoming EV Roadmap would be banning registrations of “fuel-propelled private cars”, expanding the EV charging network, promoting EVS, training technicians and mechanics and creating a “producer responsibility scheme” for retired EV batteries.

The government will also take the lead to use more EVs, Chan said. “In the past 10 years, the number of EVs increased from 184 to over 18,500, with the total number of electric private cars (e-PCs) accounting for 2.7 per cent of the total number of PCs in Hong Kong,” he said.

Chan also announced the tax for new non-electric cars would be increased.