Meralco, Mitsubishi team up for e-vehicle charging stations

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. are putting up more electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in selected offices of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Meralco’s wholly owned subsidiary, MSERV, will build the EV charging stations that will be housed in four locations: DENR Central Office in Quezon City, DTI Central Office in Makati, as well as DENR Regional Offices in Cebu and Davao.

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Motors Japan, through MMPC, donated five iMiEV (i-Mitsubishi innovative electric vehicle) and five Outlander Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) to DENR and DTI. The company also provided the agencies four Chademo EV chargers.

This is part of Mitsubishi’s advocacy to energize an EV eco-system in the Philippines.

A groundbreaking ceremony was recently held at the DENR headquarters in Quezon City as a kick-off activity for the construction of the four EV charging stations commissioned by MMPC for the two government agencies.

The projects follow the initial rollout of the country’s first commercial EV charging station installed by Meralco in 2013 in its Pasig City compound, which is also in partnership with Mitsubishi.

The power distributor also introduced the Tesla electric car priced at around P9 million to showcase e-vehicles in the country.

Last year, Meralco commenced initial talks with US-based automotive and energy storage firm Tesla for a possible joint investment in the country’s battery storage space.

The possible partnership with Tesla will serve well in Meralco’s expansion into EV and solar businesses as part of disrupting its traditional business of power distribution.

In 2015, Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan acknowledged the dawn of battery storage will disrupt the company’s distribution business, thus the need to eventually enter the battery energy storage space especially when prices of the technology go down.

He highlighted Tesla’s announcement of solar power batteries called the PowerWall, a system that would store solar power, making it more affordable for homeowners and businesses.

This led Meralco to form another power subsidiary, Spectrum, which will be its main vehicle for solar power investments.