Intramuros e-tricycle pilot project launched with help from Japan
THE Board of Investments (BoI), with Japanese assistance, launched a P550-million e-vehicle (EV) pilot project yesterday in a bid to boost an emerging industry that is still relatively unknown to the general public.
The investment arm of the Trade department, has entered into a partnership with Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and SoftBank Group Corp. to operate 50 electric tricycles in Intramuros, Manila.
The electric vehicles, locally manufactured by BEMAC Electric Transportation Philippines, Inc., form a pilot project which would test an IT platform developed by SoftBank Group Corp. The platform functions as a cloud that keeps track of the performance of the vehicles, including how much battery charge they have left.
BoI Executive Director for Industry Development Services Ma. Corazon Halili-Dichosa said that the project would help assess weaknesses in the technology that may concern EV users.
“Through this project, we hope to further popularize the use of electric vehicles for public transport and study how to address the concerns that may affect the vulnerability of the operations of potential transport operators of electric vehicles in the country,” she said in her speech during the inauguration.
The project, which would run for two years from October 2016 to September 2018, would consider expanding to other areas of the Philippines as well as in other countries like Indonesia and India should the results of the initiative prove to be favorable.
This is part of a larger initiative in order to make the Philippines a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles in the region. Ms. HaliliDichosa said that the government plans to court more foreign investors to persuade them to set up production here.
“We also hope to make the Philippines an EV manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia. We hope that more foreign investments and partnerships with local investors would come and make the country a production place for EV manufacturing.”
“Based on industry estimates, if we can have the Philippines as a manufacturing hub, we can generate as much as 100,000 jobs. Therefore, going green makes sense.”
On the sidelines, Ms. HaliliDichosa also said that the government is also considering to include electric vehicles into other public modes of transportation.
“There’s another one we are working on. It’s e-jeepneys. Discussions have just started and we hope to have a final agreement by next year with the Japanese.”
She said that discussions are with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), but details of the project, such as the number of units to be produced or the location wherein it would operate, are yet to be determined.
“For the e-jeep we are looking at relating it to the modernization of the jeepneys,” she noted.
In a statement that came with the launch, BoI said that there are over 30 firms engaged in the local electric vehicles industry, employing over 10,000 individuals.
However, Ms. Halili-Dichosa said that the market will still need a lot of support to grow, citing factors that currently restrict the industry from expanding at a pace that would match its ambitions of being a manufacturing hub.
“We are still at the stage of how to make the acquisition of electric vehicles affordable,” she said, noting that an EV’s battery accounts for about half of the total cost of the vehicle. —