E-vehicle makers urge LGUs to shift public transport mode

MANILA, Philippines – The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) seeks to encourage more local government units (LGUs) to adopt e-vehicles for public transport application as it embarks on an aggressive three-year plan for the local electric vehicle industry together with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

In a statement yesterday, EVAP president Rommel Juan said the group hopes more LGUs would get into the vehicle industry next year by using more environment-friendly vehicle alternatives like e-jeepneys and e-tricycles.

EVAP said its members have already rolled out e-vehicle transport projects in Boracay, Makati, Quezon City, Muntinlupa, Alabang, Cavite and various university campuses such as Ateneo, De La Salle and UP.

“We are reaching out to more LGUs nationwide and enticing them to get into the electric vehicle bandwagon. The adoption of more electric vehicles for public transport will significantly reduce the carbon emissions in the country by 355,506 tons with the deployment of 100,000 electric tricycles alone. That is just a drop in the bucket considering there is a total of over 1.2 million regular tricycles in operation nationwide today,” Juan said.

EVAP estimates some 10,000 new jobs would be created in both upstream and downstream support industries once the local e-vehicle industry is successfully developed.

“In fact, with enough government support and incentives, the Philippines might just be the next electric vehicle manufacturing hub in the region,” Juan said.

The DTI and EVAP, following their yearend meeting, have mapped out a more aggressive plan for the local e-vehicle industry, targeting the rollout of some 6,000 units of these environment-friendly vehicles over the next three years.

The local industry’s target is to roll out 5,000 e-tricycles and 1,000 e-jeepneys until 2018.

To support the target, financing of the e-vehicle ecosystems and access to green credit lines are being discussed by financial institutions such as the Development Bank of the Philippines and Landbank.

An e-vehicle working group was likewise formed as a sub-cluster of the automotive industry technical working group.