The Macau SAR government plans to abolish the requirement for horsepower, torsion, and gradeability of the taxi system in order to promote electric taxis.
Cost-effective designs for taxis may increase, but they lack incentive to push the industry toward electric taxis, said Leng Sai Wai, the councilor of the Macao Automobile Traders and Workers Association. He suggests designating areas to charge electric taxis and extending the taxi service to Hengqin, where more charging devices are available, to cope with the insufficient amount of charging stations and the possible new requirements for electric taxis after many taxi licenses expire.
According to Daniel Cheng, councilor of the Macau Motor Traders Association, the government should consider reducing the charging fees to decrease their influence on sales of electric vehicles. Also, he mentioned that the cost to switch to an electric taxi is around MOP300,000, and they take a long time to charge. Although types of electric taxis will increase in the future, the reduction of their service hours due to charging makes them less attractive.
The first batch of electric taxis was put into operation in 2018. Following that, there were complaints about the high maintenance costs and the scarcity of charging piles.
Staff Reporter
