Methanol electric acceleration lands in Hong Kong

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Author | Zhou Zhiyu

Hong Kong has over 100,000 electric vehicles, but only 11,000 charging stations. On average, every 11 cars share one station, with fast charging accounting for less than 20%. In private residential estates, it can take two to three years just to get approval to install a charging station.

If private cars face such challenges, commercial vehicles are even worse off. Of Hong Kong's 24,000 buses, only a few dozen are electric; among 18,000 taxis, only a few hundred are electric vehicles. Transportation accounts for about 20% of Hong Kong’s carbon emissions, second only to power generation, and is a key area for carbon reduction. But the pace of electrifying public transport lags far behind mainland China.

The issue isn’t with the vehicles, but with the infrastructure. Land is scarce in Hong Kong, so the cost and difficulty of approving land for a large charging station far exceeds that on the mainland. City buses run for over ten hours a day—relying on scattered slow-charging stations cannot meet operational demands.

This gives methanol-electric vehicles an opening.

On June 18th, Geely's Farizon announced that its U12M methanol-electric bus has received emission exemption approval from the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department, and will officially be put into commercial operation in August. This is the first time a methanol-electric commercial vehicle has gained market entry outside mainland China—not just for exhibition or trial runs, but with real qualifications to operate and carry passengers.

The energy-replenishment logic of the U12M is completely different from pure electric. It’s equipped with a 400-liter methanol tank, can be refueled in 5 minutes, and has a range of over 700 kilometers—without relying on charging networks or requiring large areas for station construction. Existing gas stations can be easily modified for methanol refueling, with the retrofit cost for a single fuel tank as low as 50,000 to 100,000 yuan. For a city like Hong Kong where charging stations can’t be widely rolled out, this method is more suitable than pure electric.

Farizon’s work with methanol isn’t new. Geely has invested in this track for over 20 years; more than 60,000 methanol-electric vehicles have been put into operation by Farizon, logging 25 billion kilometers, with the latest generation achieving 50.3% thermal efficiency and emissions up to China National VII standard. The technology itself isn’t the issue.

The real bottleneck is going abroad.

This January, China’s new energy commercial vehicle exports were only 6,000 units, a 1.4% year-on-year decrease; at the same time, new energy passenger car exports doubled—the gap is significant. The reason is simple: exporting commercial vehicles isn’t just about selling one car. Passenger vehicle exports rely on product strength and price—you convince one consumer and you make a sale. Commercial vehicles are production materials: for a methanol bus to operate, questions like where the methanol comes from, where to refill, who will operate it, and whether regulations allow it on the road must all be answered at once. If any are missing, shipping the vehicle over is pointless.

What Farizon is doing in Hong Kong is closing this loop in a single city.

They have signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Towngas. Towngas itself is deploying green methanol production, and the two sides will build methanol refueling demonstration sites in Hong Kong. In March this year, Hong Kong completed its first “ship-to-ship” green methanol refueling—the methanol supply chain base has taken root.

With the energy in place, the vehicles are keeping up. Besides the upcoming U12M bus, Farizon’s Super VAN was already delivered in bulk last year to Hong Kong Bumblebee’s taxi fleet. Methanol-electric light trucks, marine power systems, and mobile power supply vehicles were also brought to this auto show, covering public transportation, urban logistics, and emergency energy supply.

On the operational side, Farizon signed with Cao Cao Mobility to launch a cumulative 100,000 Robovan Shentong T6 units by 2030 for unmanned logistics. On June 17, Hong Kong Polytechnic University released a “White Paper on Decarbonization Transformation Pathways for Hong Kong Public Bus System,” using data to academically validate the feasibility of the methanol route in Hong Kong.

Farizon’s value in Hong Kong isn’t limited to the local market. Hong Kong’s environmental regulations align with international standards—approval for the U12M here is almost equivalent to receiving a report card near international benchmarks. For Farizon, this becomes a trump card when seeking other overseas markets in the future.

The Hong Kong bus market itself also has potential. KMB has set a goal to fully electrify its fleet by 2040, and the government has allocated HK$470 million in the 2025-2026 budget to subsidize 600 electric buses. But charging issues with pure electric buses won’t be solved soon; methanol-electric happens to offer another path. Policies are also cooperative. The 15th Five-Year Plan specifically mentions “promoting the green hydrogen industry chain’s extension to green ammonia-methanol,” and “establishing hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol refueling facilities.” From the central to local governments, policy windows for methanol are opening.

On a larger scale, what Farizon is testing in Hong Kong is an industry-wide challenge: how should China’s new energy commercial vehicles go abroad?

Passenger vehicles can go abroad based on product strength and price, selling one by one. Commercial vehicles are different—energy, vehicles, and operations must be packaged together, first running smoothly in one place, then scaling up. Farizon chose Hong Kong: the market size isn’t big, standards are strict, policy has openings, and demand is real.

This comprehensive energy solution, rapidly rolled out in Hong Kong, will also serve as a model for Farizon’s future international expansion. The era of diversified energy is accelerating.

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