ADB vows $500-M funding for e-tricycles

Manila, Philippines - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has committed as much as $500 million in funding to help the Department of Energy (DOE) with its electric-tricycle (e-tricycle) project.

“We are discussing the details. It could be in the range of $400 million to $500 million for 100,000 tricycles. This is a long-term project,” ADB principal energy specialist Sohail Hasnie told reporters at the Energy Efficient Electricity Vehicles Forum yesterday.

Hasnie said they would raise this amount through various means.

“We are talking with some local banks for concessional financing,” he said.

Early this month, the DOE and the ADB launched an initial 20 e-tricycles in Mandaluyong. Ten units, with a seating capacity of six to eight passengers, are designed with six-kwh lithium-ion battery, which can achieve a distance of 80 kilometers (km) to 100 km in a single charge. The remaining units are equipped with a three kWh battery which needs to be charged after 40 km to 50 km. Charging takes about 20 minutes and drivers can charge their vehicles in four charging stations.

The e-tricycles will not only save the drivers money as they no longer need to buy conventional fuel but will also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The turnover is part of the team-up of the DOE and ADB to create a National Electric Vehicle Strategy. While the strategy is being developed, the DOE will start introducing e-tricycles, e-jeepneys, e-buses, and e-cars with the help of local entrepreneurs and technical experts.

The agency is currently developing a sustainable model for introducing e-tricycles. It envisions that the promotion of e-tricycles will spur the development of local capabilities to design and maintain small-sized electric cars.

This, in turn, will entice private investors to set up local manufacturing facilities that will lead to the creation of more jobs and a dynamic market for locally assembled units for export to the ASEAN region in the future.

Another parallel program is the DOE’s Fueling Sustainable Transport

Program (FSTP). This seeks to convert public and private vehicles from diesel and gasoline to compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electric power.

With the FTSP, the government hopes to reduce the carbon footprint of road transport in the Philippines. With ADB funding, the DOE, through the FSTP, likewise aims to launch a series of pilot runs of electric and LPG jeeps as well as demonstration runs of electric buses and cars to show their viability.

With the FSTP, the government hopes to reduce the number gasoline and diesel-fed transport vehicles in the country by 30 percent by 2020 and eventually reduce the carbon footprint of road transport in the Philippines.