Economic and/or practical points to be addressed
Electric vehicle (EV) is one of most promising solutions to reduce carbon footprints on roads. Infrastructure development is always the key to encourage and facilitate drivers to use the EVs. Road conditions and high energy consumption for air conditioning are always recognized as primary barriers at this stage. Increasing the number of charging points is also crucial to popularize the use of EVs. This paper aims to review the suitability of using EVs in Asia countries, which have more than half of the population in the world.

Methodology
Market analysis including governmental polices on EV development are reviewed. Pilot trials of EVs in Asia countries have been implemented for many years and are discussed in this paper. The advantages and challenges of using different EVs are also elaborated. The possible measures for the development and enhancement of the charging infrastructure are outlined.

Main scientific and technical
The major requirements of EVs such as travelling distance, charging infrastructure, reliability, energy consumption, payload and gradeablility etc. are major factors to be considered by manufacturers and users. Many research results show that the design of EVs depends on different environmental conditions such as hilly terrains and high energy consumption for air-conditioning. Therefore, optimizing the electric powertrain system and energy system is crucial in the design stage of EVs to tackle on the needs for different countries.

Achieved results
We review the technical and operational requirements and define the major specifications of EVs for Asia countries. Different operational modes and relating challenges in different driving environments will be investigated. We propose to understand the key parameters which will improve the performance of EVs and the result will be set as a good reference for the future development of EVs.

Key Words
Electric vehicle, Infrastructure development, Electric powertrain system, Energy system

Mr. Tiande MO, Hong Kong Productivity Council, CHINA - HONG KONG; Prof. LAU Kin Tak, Swinburne University of Technology, AUSTRALIA; Dr. Chi Kin POON, Hong Kong Productivity Council, CHINA - HONG KONG; Xiaohua Ge, Swinburne University of Technology, AUSTRALIA; Mr. Yu LI, Hong Kong Productivity Council, CHINA - HONG KONG; Mr. Chuliang SHAN, Hong Kong Productivity Council, CHINA - HONG KONG