Gov’t pressed to revive $500-M e-trike program

The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (Evap) has urged the Duterte administration to push through with the $500-million electric tricycle (e-trike) program, which was recently dropped by the Department of Energy (DOE) due to its high cost.

According to Evap, other government agencies such as the Department of Transportation or the Department of Interior and Local Government could continue the project, which has put the Philippines in the global electric vehicle industry map and has attractive many foreign manufacturers to set up shop in the country.

“We, as an organization and as industry players, wish to give our suggestions to the DOE in the hope of making the program more successful. We believe that the $500-million fund by the ADB may still be used in other EV-related projects not necessarily requiring a formal bidding. We do not wish for this fund to be wasted and simply be returned to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). There are plenty of opportunities in the country for EVs, may it be three-wheeled electric tricycles or even four-wheeled electric jeepneys. This much-needed fund could help jump-start and catalyze our domestic EV industry, which is just starting to take off,” the Evap explained.

“We implore the government to please help us sustain the momentum of the initial success of EVs in the country and help make the Philippines the EV hub of Asia. With government support, we can do it. A Green Financing Program could (instead) be devised using government financial institutions as loan conduits, thus providing operating funds financing for manufacturers and retail financing for customers,” the group further said.

Evap also pointed out the impact of the project, which is expected to help preserve the environment, generate new job opportunities, bring in foreign investors, reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuel imports and generate additional taxes for the government as well.

“We at Evap have worked very hard for this e-trike program for so many years and we sincerely wish that the program will be continued, even with an adjusted terms of reference to make it more acceptable to the target beneficiaries,” the group said.

Several years ago, the DOE and the ADB came out with a plan to roll out a total of 100,000

e-trikes as part of the government’s efforts to jump-start that critical transition toward a sustainable transport program.

The plan was to replace the gasoline-burning tricycles with these energy efficient vehicles by December 2017 using a $300-million loan from the ADB, a $100-million loan and a $5-million grant from the Clean Technology Fund and a $99-million counterpart funding from the Philippine government.