E-vehicle industry seeks battery technology investors

Domestic electric vehicle assemblers are pushing for investments in battery production in the country as they expect demand for e-vehicles to accelerate to 8-12 percent annually.

The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) already placed sales of e-vehicles to reach 200,000 units in the next six years with estimated 11.68 billion on sales of services, the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP).

EVAP President Edmund Araga told reporters at the press launch for the Nickel Initiative 2019, which is slated next month, that for this year alone they expect to supply as much as 12,000 units of various e-vehicles from trikes, jeepneys and motorcycles from last year’s 7,000 units.

Araga, who is also president of ECO PUV Inc., said that the 200,000 units are going to replace some of the 400,000 units of old jeepneys that are going to be phased out. He, however, explained that not all of these old jeepneys are going to be replaced by evehicles because some will just have to be replaced with old the euro-4 engines.

Motolite is the lone car battery producer in the country, but Araga said that Motolite’s product cannot cope with the huge demand aside from having products with different specification from that of the e-vehicles. (BCM)