MANILA, Philippines - Local electric vehicle industry players are seeking to get much-needed funding from financial institutions to accelerate the electric vehicle industry in the country.
The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) said the Climate Technology Initiative Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI PFAN) has linked up the group with four funding institutions, namely the Bank of the Philippine Islands, Development Bank of the Philippines, Philippine Export-Import Bank and Negosyong Pinoy.
“The missing pieces in the electric vehicle industry puzzle are now falling into place one by one. Very recently, the lack of financing for electric vehicles has been addressed as funders are now more receptive after seeing more evidence of proof of concept that electric vehicles technology really works,” EVAP said in a statement yesterday.
CTI PFAN is a multilateral public private partnership initiated by the Climate Technology Initiative and the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change, which connects clean energy businesses and projects with private sector financing.
To date, CTI PFAN has raised $545 million in investment and financing for clean energy projects in developing countries across Africa, Asia, Central Asia, Latin and Central America and the Caribbean.
EVAP president Rommel Juan said many of the group’s members currently have working projects and the only missing link is financing for capital expenditure, operational expenses and retail financing of electric vehicles.
“Thus, linking up our members with the proper financial institutions which have green funds ready for utilization is the best service our association can do for them,” Juan said.
“With these major funding institutions’ renewed thrust towards financing clean energy and clean transport initiatives, we finally see a silver lining for our various electric vehicle projects in EVAP, such as our E-Trike program in Bacoor” said Edmund Araga, vice president of ETrike manufacturer KEA Industrial Corp. and secretary of EVAP.
EVAP, which is composed of 50 electric vehicle industry players, has been actively pushing for the modernization and greening of the country’s public transport sector. It is urging local government units to consider the use of electric vehicles in their operations.