e-trike program set to rollout in Manila and various parts of metro

As small an industry as it seems now in the Philippines, electric vehicles (EVs) are without a doubt the future of mobility – reducing our reliance on fossil fuel and tailpipe emissions.

The Philippine government is set to implement several new electric tricycle (e-trike) programs beginning in the City of Manila before rolling it out to other cities in the metropolis.

A Php 550 million investment has been made by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in the Board of Investment’s (BOI’s) two-year program that involves the operation and maintenance of 50 e-trike units and 17 charging stations in Club Intramuros.

“The more demand, the more encouragement for local operators to adopt the use of e-vehicles and hopefully more production in the country. The more experience we have also in production would also allow us to attract more investments to pour into the e-vehicle manufacturing,” said BOI Executive Director Ma. Corazon Halili-Dichosa.

The government is also eyeing an expanded electric vehicle network by partnering with NEDO, which has implemented an electric bus program in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on electric jeeps and buses.

Also in the pipeline is the implementation of a 3,000 e-trike program by the Department of Energy and the Asian Development Bank.

To boost the electric vehicle industry, the BOI has included the manufacture of e-vehicles and e-vehicles components in the Investment Priorities Plan 2014-2016 in which qualified entities are entitled for fiscal incentives.

“With projects such as the MaaS, we hope to make PH an EV manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia. We hope that more local and foreign investments will come and make the country their production base, thus create around 100,000 in new jobs for Filipinos,” added Dichosa.