E-vehicle makers to promote 'green cars'

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s fledgling electric vehicle industry is drawing up a roadmap to promote “green cars” ahead of the holding of the first Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit.

“The summit expects to be able to formulate a roadmap for the EV industry for at least the next five years. We have to be ready with the solutions to overcome the current technical hurdles and with the needed infrastructure to enable us to grow the domestic EV market,” said Ferdinand Raquelsantos, president of PhUV Inc., the business arm of the Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (MVPMAP) and the local assembler of electric jeepneys.

“International carmakers also predict the international EV industry sales to grow by about one percent per year. Thus by 2020, it is expected to account for about 10 percent of new car sales in the world market.”

The summit is organized by MVPMAP, World Wide Fund for Nature, Save the Air Partnership for Clean Air, Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities in cooperation with the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco). It will have for its theme “The Road Forward for the Electric Vehicle Industry in the Philippines.”

Raquelsantos said the entry of Meralco into the picture bodes well for the domestic EV industry “as we can now expect the facilitation of the much-needed off-site charging stations to increase the mileage of the EVs.”

MVPMAP and PhUV Inc. have pioneered the EV industry in the Philippines by locally designing, fabricating, assembling and actually putting on the road the eJeepneys, the first EV to be granted the orange-colored license plate by the Land Transportation Office under the new category Low Speed Vehicle or LSV.

Raquelsantos sid over the past three years, a lot have been learned such as the importance of after-sales service and parts availablility and the transfer of technology in the fields of EV maintenance and repairs, electric motors, rechargeable batteries, controllers, chargers and EV testing.

He said a research Commissioned for the summit indicated that there is now mounting international pressure on carmakers due to tighter legislations on carbon dioxide emissions. In this regard, they are looking at full electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid technology to provide the answers. This early, they are developing the infrastructure needed such as either battery swapping or charging stations in malls, supermarkets and private and public parking lots.