MANILA, Philippines - Accelerating its efforts in promoting and utilizing alternative fuels technology for public transport, the Department of Energy (DOE) is partnering with local government units (LGUs) to formulate a program to help municipalities acquire electric tricycles.
The DOE recently conducted a stakeholders’ workshop wherein participants from the DOE, LGUs, Manila Electric Company (Meralco,) and the Land Bank of the Philippines shared their concerns and ideas. As a result, the E-trike Rent-to-Own Program was created, a project to be implemented in municipalities throughout the nation.
This program is under the National Electric Vehicle Strategy program of the DOE and is in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB). A loan facility has been provided by ADB for this industry market transformation initiative, which aims to deploy 100,000 electric tricycles using lithium ion batteries in various key cities and provinces.
As of April 2011, the DOE has already handed over 20 units of electric tricycles to the City of Mandaluyong. The commercial run of these e-trikes began last May and results from a period of four months showed very good economic returns for the drivers in terms of fuel savings and higher net take home pay.
Aside from this, the DOE is also currently in the process of piloting e-tricycles, e-jeepneys, e-buses, and e-cars with the help of local entrepreneurs, industry players, and technical experts.