EVAP seeks reconsideration of e-trike program cancellation

Electric vehicle (EV) players in the country are appealing to the Department of Energy (DOE) to re-consider its earlier scrapping of the electric tricycle (e-trike) program even if this will mean adjustments on the terms of reference (TOR) on the financing arrangement.

The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) advanced its plea to the government to “sustain the momentum of the initial success of EVs and help make the Philippines the EV hub of Asia.”

The group stressed that “with government support, we can do it,” while it ardently asked the energy department to continue the e-trike program “with a revised terms of reference.”

EVAP emphasized that “a green financing program could be devised using government financial institutions as loan conduits, thus providing operating funds, financing for manufacturers and retail financing for customers.”

Such financing arrangement, the group said, may also be administered by other government agencies such as the Department of Transportation or the Department of Interior and Local Government.

EVAP members have cited the extent of hard work that they put in just to advance the initial rollout of the country’s e-trike program – that they had gone to the extent of ‘formalizing support’ to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan when it was first put to question.

“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 targeted beneficiaries,” the group has reiterated.

Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi apprised the media last week that he already canceled the $300-million ADB loan for the proposed deployment of 100,000 e-trikes – albeit he retained just the portion on the initial 3,000 fleets already awarded to a supplier via a competitive auction.

The energy chief said the cost of the e-trikes under the ADB financing scheme emerged to be a losing proposition for both the operators and e-trike drivers, hence, the department opted to just strike it down.

The EV industry players maintained though that electric mobility would still work well in the country – with just some fine-tuning in the policies and investment strategies.

They noted that the various pilot projects in many areas are just proof that EVs “can be mass-produced by local technicians, by Filipino engineers and are already available in commercial volumes.”