The Philippines can become the hub for electric vehicle production in the Asia Pacific region, said Rommel Juan, president of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP).
The country has set a target of putting one million electric vehicles on its roads by 2020, Juan added. This includes two-wheelers like electric bikes, electric motorcycles, 3-wheelers like electric tricycles, and the e-jeepneys.
The statement was made at the 3rd Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit held in Pasig City.
The event witnessed participation of more than 500 participants including major industry players, manufacturers, NGOs, the academe, and government officials, from all over the world.
The growing interest for electric vehicles (EV) in the Philippines is attributed to the fuel cost savings. A motorist saves up to 80 percent of the money they would normally use to gas up their car, as per the industry reports.
The Philippines is in talks with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Department of Energy (DOE) to finalize a project to replace 200,000 conventional tricycles with electric versions.
The 5-year project aims that 100,000 electric tricycles or e-trikes will be used all over the country by the end of 2017. With this, the government expects to save more than $100 million a year in duel imports, while decreasing annual CO2 emissions by about 260,000 tons through the replacement of gasoline-fed trikes with e-trikes.
The DOE is also set to announce the winner of the public bidding for the supplier of the first 3,000 e-trikes in the next few weeks. The initial bidders are from Japan, Taiwan and Korea.
The first set of 3000 e-tricycles will be distributed among ten local government units starting with 500 in Mandaluyong City, 500 in Manila, 500 in Tarlac, and others, an ADB official said.
Juan added that people are becoming more environmentally conscious nowadays thanks to typhoon Yolanda effects. The EV summit gains more relevance in this context, he added.
Juan said the EV Summit had now become more relevant in the light of the recent effects of typhoon Yolanda. “Thus this year, even major auto shows abroad have prominently featured electric vehicles and other forms of alternative fuel vehicles.”
In December, Vancouver-based Pangea Motors entered into a deal with the Philippines government to replace urban vehicles with zero-emission electric vehicles. The company has agreed to supply 10,000 of the vehicles for use on the congested streets of Manila under an agreement the company inked with transportation group Pasang Masda.
Pangea will ship the 10,000 Comets over three years, with about 200 heading out in the first quarter of 2014, said Ken Montler, CEO of GET International, which is marketing the Comet for Pangea.