Department of Energy Undersecretary Donato Marcos said the DoE is now talking to several local governments interested in deploying electric tricycles (ETrikes) in their respective cities, towns or municipalities.
Marcos assured local executives that the $500-million Electric Tricycle Project that aims to gradually replace regular tricycles with ETrikes nationwide will push through.
In an industry meeting between the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines and the DoE, Marcos said financing will partially be provided by the Asian Development Bank.
“In fact, BEMAC, the winner of the first package of an initial 3,000 ETrikes for roll-out, is set to make its first batch of deliveries by the end of September and the rest by the end of the year,” he said. “The next batch to be bidded out by the DoE will be out within the year as well. This will be for a total of 6,000 units of ETrikes.”
Marcos also disclosed that EVAP president Rommel Juan said his group still fully supports the DoE project which they expect will catalyze the EV industry and drive ETrikes into the mainstream of mass transport in the country.
“We have actively relayed our own industry perspectives to DoE with regards to the project,” says Juan. “In preparation for the next set of biddings, we given the DOE our inputs on how to improve the terms of reference of the bid and make them more suitable for local adoption based on the EVAP members’ experiences of the Philippine EV market. From this project, we expect a lot of benefits to trickle down to our members in both the downstream and upstream support industries.”
