Cebu pushed to build local EV supply chain, eye exports

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu should aim to become a manufacturing and export hub for electric two-wheelers rather than remain a market for imported motorcycles, according to Sheldon Lee, co-founder of Singapore-based electric mobility company Kilats.

Lee said during the Cebu Economic Forum 4.0, hosted by the Cebu Provincial Government, that the province had the industrial base, skilled workforce and international connectivity needed to build a local electric-mobility ecosystem — but would need to move beyond assembling imported units if it wanted to capture more of the industry’s value.

“Cebu has the ingredients,” was the underlying message of Lee’s presentation. The challenge, he argued, is turning those advantages into an investment proposition that can attract companies willing to commit capital for the long term.

Kilats’ business model illustrates the potential. The company combines electric motorcycles with removable batteries, battery-swapping stations and fleet-management software. It began operations in Bali in 2024 and has since expanded to Bandung, with delivery riders forming its initial customer base.

Lee said the company had about 700 motorcycles and 44 battery-swapping stations in Indonesia at the time of his presentation. Swapping a depleted battery takes less than a minute, allowing riders to spend more time earning rather than waiting for vehicles to charge.

For delivery operators, the economics can be significant. Lee said riders using the system had reduced daily downtime from roughly three hours to less than one hour, while operating expenses could fall by as much as 60 percent. In some cases, he said, riders could potentially double their daily earnings.

The proposition is particularly relevant to Cebu, he said where motorcycles are deeply embedded in the delivery and transport economy. Rather than trying to persuade all consumers to switch immediately to electric vehicles, Lee suggested that high-mileage commercial users should provide the industry’s first beachhead.

Delivery riders travel long distances, work extended hours and are particularly exposed to petrol, maintenance and downtime costs. Those factors make the financial case for electrification easier to demonstrate than in the private-vehicle market.

Yet the Philippines has lagged some neighboring Asian markets in electric two-wheeler adoption.

Lee attributed the slower take-up to a combination of consumer concerns, products that do not adequately fit local needs, inadequate charging or swapping infrastructure and regulatory obstacles.

For Cebu, the bigger opportunity may therefore lie not simply in selling electric motorcycles but in building an industry around them.

Lee suggested that the province should gradually move from importing completely built units or completely knocked-down kits towards producing motorcycle components locally. Such a shift would create a deeper manufacturing base while giving local suppliers an opportunity to participate in the electric-vehicle supply chain.

That transition, however, will require more than subsidies.

Lee called for a “plug-and-play” investment framework that would simplify permits, vehicle registration and coordination among government agencies. Investors, he said, need regulatory certainty, financing and infrastructure alongside incentives.

The distinction is important. Subsidies can stimulate early demand, but they cannot by themselves create a sustainable industry. Electric mobility requires an ecosystem in which vehicles, batteries, swapping infrastructure, software, financing and after-sales services develop together.

It also requires investors prepared to wait.

Lee described electric-mobility projects as requiring “patient capital”, with investors potentially needing to look at a five- to 10-year horizon for returns. That may test the appetite of investors accustomed to shorter payback periods, particularly in a market where adoption is still developing.

Kilats’ strategy is to work with local partners rather than attempt to build the entire ecosystem itself. Lee also identified conventional petrol-powered motorcycle manufacturers, rather than other electric-vehicle companies, as the company’s principal competitors.

For Cebu, that framing points to a broader industrial question. The opportunity presented by electric two-wheelers is not merely to replace petrol engines with batteries, but to establish a new manufacturing cluster while the technology and supply chains are still evolving.

The province already possesses many of the ingredients: an established manufacturing sector, engineering and software talent from its universities, a skilled workforce and access to international ports. Whether those advantages translate into an electric-mobility industry will depend on whether government and investors can remove the regulatory and infrastructure bottlenecks that stand between assembly and genuine local manufacturing.

The prize is potentially larger than the domestic motorcycle market. A Cebu-based industry capable of producing components and finished electric two-wheelers could ultimately use the province’s export infrastructure to serve markets elsewhere in Asia.

That makes the electric motorcycle less interesting as a vehicle than as a test of Cebu’s ability to build its next generation of manufacturing.