Performance Study of Battery-Powered Electric Vehicles in Macau

With the growing concerns on price fluctuation, depletion of petroleum resources and global warming, environmental and health issues, there is fast growing interest in electric vehicles (EVs) in Macau. Being a city with small geographical size (29.5km2) limiting the travel range of vehicles, Macau has great potential for EV implementation. There is also a pressing need for researchers and power utilities to develop various infrastructures for EVs and strategies for adapting EVs. In November 2010, the Macau Government announced to promote “green vehicles” by offering tax incentives in acquisition of “energy efficient vehicles”. During past two years, several public test rides and demonstrations of electric bikes, scooters, mini/mid-size sedans and buses were conducted by manufacturers from Europe, Japan, Taiwan and China. Three battery-powered EVs (BEVs) were imported to Macau, one by the power company and the other by a car renting company in April 2010 and had been running in real-world for nearly two years; the third was bought by Macau Government in September 2011. A project was launched to investigate the performance of EV, specifically for sub-tropical environment of Macau. Due to the high temperature and humidity, performance of EVs operated in Macau was yet to be understood. Previous experimental studies conducted in the US, Europe or Japan might not reflect the actual local real-road driving conditions. A BEV was used for experiments and evaluation, while an internal combustion engine (ICE) powered counterpart was used as baseline. This project aimed at the road testing of EVs and evaluation of fuel costs and CO2 reductions when EVs are adopted in Macau area.