DOE awards e-trike deal to lone Japanese bidder

PILILIA, Rizal, Philippines – The Department of Energy moves forward with the development of electric vehicles in the country following the awarding of the contract for the supply of 3,000 electric tricycles to the sole bidder, Japanese firm Uzushio Electric Co. Ltd.

The agency has issued the notice of award to Uzushio, through local partner BEMAC Electric Transportation Philippines Inc., after successful negotiations to reduce the price per unit of e-trikes, DOE Undersecretary Donato Marcos said yesterday.

He said Uzushio’s first bid was around P600,000 per e-trike, which was reduced to P461,000 following negotiations with DOE and the Asian Development Bank, the government’s partner in the program.

“ADB asked for another round of negotiation to further lower the price and the price per unit is now reduced to around P455,000 to P460,000,” Marcos said.

He added the negotiations also resulted in better features in the contract, which include a five-year warranty on the e-trike battery, three-year Land Transportation Office registration and three-year comprehensive insurance.

The DOE official noted signing of the contract will be within 28 days from the notice of award, which was received by the Japanese firm last Monday.

Following the issuance of the notice to proceed, it will take three months for the roll out of the first 1,200 units and then another three months for the remaining units.

These units will be rolled out in Metro Manila, Region 4-A and Region 4-B, as earlier stipulated in the bidding.

The supply of e-trikes is the initial phase of the $504-million e-vehicles program, a joint undertaking of the DOE and the ADB.

The DOE will then first observe the market, whether the program sparked demand of e-vehicles, Marcos noted.

“If the government has served as catalyst...we can then shift to bigger e-vehicles in the form of e-jeepney or e-bus, which will be a cross-breed with solar,” he said.

The e-vehicle program of DOE and ADB aims to reduce the country’s fuel imports and lessen annual carbon dioxide emissions by replacing 100,000 of the 3.5-million gasoline-powered tricycles currently operating in the Philippines with the e-trikes.