Saturday 10 October 2015

Auto & Events: FIA Formula E Hong Kong Press Conference feat. Charged Hong Kong


Hong Kong ePrix circuit
Image from Locky's English Playground
Charged Hong Kong was invited to attend the FIA Formula E Hong Kong press conference held at the Central Harbourfront Event Space yesterday.

Seats for Mark and I
Image from Locky's English Playground

Mark Webb-Johnson, chairman of Charged Hong Kong, and myself, Tesla group representative of Charged Hong Kong, were offered the second front row VIP seats with Lawrence Yu Kam-kee, President of Hong Kong Automobile Association (HKAA), right behind the Chief Executive of Hong Kong CY Leung and the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong Gregory So. What an honour!

Chief Executive of Hong Kong CY Leung (left) and the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong Gregory So (right)
Image from Locky's English Playground
Because of that, Mark and I were also captured in many of the photos, all of which I firmly believed will be discarded eventually.

CY and Gregory photographed by a group of reporters
Image from Locky's English Playground
Still, it was the first time I have never been photographed so many times in my life.


Mark broadcasting the event with Periscope app on his always reliable iPhone 6
Image from Locky's English Playground
Because the event only accepted invited guests, Mark diligently live broadcast the event with Periscope app on his always reliable iPhone 6 while I took photos and videos on my crappy camera Samsung Note 3, hence the following photos:

The moment that Gregory was introduced
Image from Locky's English Playground
Taking photos are often easy for me but it was a tricky yesterday as I had to juggle between photographing, uploading photos and videos to chat groups and Facebook, and waiting for calls from Tesla's driver as he was delivering my car to IFC after the completion of door replacement.

Formula E car waiting to be unveiled
Image from Locky's English Playground
And just as the Formula E car was about to be unveiled, counting down from 3 and I was videoing, the Tesla driver called and cut off the video recording, as you shall see later in the video below.

Lawrence Yu making his speech
Image from Locky's English Playground
The Lawrence Yu speech was quite moving as he himself almost teared out when he said that he has been striving to get Formula E to Hong Kong for years and to be able to do so on the 9th October (2016) next year is his best 70th birthday present. Great guy! Through Mark's introduction, I got to shake hands with him after the conference and thank him for all his contributions to EV development in Hong Kong.

My little selfie with Mark who barely noticed that I took it
Image from Locky's English Playground

First ever Formula E world champion Nelson Piquet Jr.
Image from Locky's English Playground
The charming Formula E world champion Nelson Piquet Jr. was of course the centre of attention for the entire event as he talked about his racing experience, techniques and feelings about Hong Kong as the venue for Formula E next year.

Future racers meet today's champion
Image from Locky's English Playground
Our future racers of Hong Kong were the luckiest as they got to meet the champion and received autographed Formula E caps as gift.


Right after the press conference, I had to run all the way back to IFC to collect my beautifully fixed Tesla Model S, drive it to the IFC car park, then run all the way back to the venue. Quite a bit of exercise.

OUTATIME, yeah! Back to the future are we?
Image from Locky's English Playground
Because the press conference was in fact part of the Hong Kong Classic car show, we got to see so many classic automobiles, like this DMC De Lorean from back to the future.

Really OUTATIME
Image from Locky's English Playground
As well as the original AE 86 Trueno from Initial D as shown below.

AE 86 Treuno without Tofu logo.
Image from Locky's English Playground
There are of course, so many I do not recognise, but they are 99% kept in terrific shape!

Image from Locky's English Playground
Image from Locky's English Playground
There are no modern EVs around except the Formula e one and the Solar Powered Electric Vehicle by IVE Sophie Team in the photo below.

Solar Powered Electric Vehicle by IVE Sophie Team in the photo below.
Image from Locky's English Playground
At the extra time, we witnessed a TVB newsanchor doing her report while sitting on the Formula EV, 

TVB newsanchor adds weight on her report
Image from Locky's English Playground
I took photo of Mark with his long-time friend Lawrence Yu and had a quick chat (followup chat later)

Lawrence Yu (left), President of Hong Kong Automobile Association, in photo with Mark Webb-Johnson (right), chairman of Charged Hong Kong
Image from Locky's English Playground
and Mark took a great photo of me.

Charged Hong Kong Tesla Group Representative Locky Law with Formula E electric car
Photo by Mark Webb-Johnson

Many thanks to Mark for his miraculous strength and perseverance in Periscoping the event:




Resources:

Charged Hong Kong @ FIA Formula E Hong Kong Press Conference +YouTube
https://youtu.be/KNMfskBYQHc

Formula E 明年中環海濱決鬥 睇電驅方程式必須知道的 13 件事 @e-Zone
http://www.e-zone.com.hk/channelnews.php?id=9336

Formula E 2016 年殺到香港 睇電驅方程式必須知道的 13 件事(續)@e-Zone
http://www.e-zone.com.hk/channelnews.php?id=9337

Charged Hong Kong @ FIA Formula E Hong Kong Press Conference (Periscope App Part 1)
https://youtu.be/5wOCTE2LOmE

Charged Hong Kong @ FIA Formula E Hong Kong Press Conference (Periscope App Part 2)
https://youtu.be/V5_-tPFL6XU