DOE slams brakes on e-tricycle program

The Department of Energy (DOE) is stepping on the brakes of its own e-trike program, citing challenges in qualifying local government units as offtakers of units to be purchased from accredited suppliers.

No less than DOE Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla told reporters that the awarding of contracts is on hold because there are no qualified offtakers.

“Actually there are buyers but when Landbank laid down its conditions, most LGUs (local government units) did not qualify, especially on the ‘seal of good housekeeping,’” he said.

Petilla said most LGUs seem to have the money to finance their e-trike acquisition through Landbank but seem to fail on good governance requirements.

He did not elaborate, saying only, “We are now asking Secretary of Finance [Cesar] Purisima to relax the requirements.”

“Hopefully it gets resolved immediately, otherwise [the

e-trike program] cannot move,” Petilla said.

The accredited suppliers were supposed to have been announced last year, but this was moved to January 2014. The government has yet to commit on the new deadline for announcing the accredited suppliers and potential LGU-beneficiaries that can get financing for their e-trike fleet orders.

Government will still try to get the e-trike program rolling this year, but it might be on a much smaller scale.

“I’m looking at a maximum of 3,000 units [rolled out] this year, [and a] minimum of 500,” he said.

The Philippines, which has some 3.5 million tricycles and 3.88 million motorcycles on its roads, seeks to curb its dependence on petrol-based products which traditional vehicles use.

Under the e-trike project led by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the DOE, the government plans to replace 100,000 fuel-fed tricycle units with energy efficient e-trikes to help reduce the transport sector’s gasoline consumption by 561,000 barrels yearly, helping eliminate 260,000 tons of carbon dioxide emission yearly.