Manila Is Building Out A 100,000-Strong Network Of Electric Trikes

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Giving the city’s three-wheeled taxi network an electric upgrade.

While electric vehicles don’t yet make sense for all kinds of transport (unless you can afford an expensive car like the Tesla Model S), there is one use case where EVs are already feasible: short city trips. There’s no reason why taxis, tuk tuks, delivery vans, and mail vehicles shouldn’t soon be electrified, with all the environmental benefits that confers.

The Philippines is already making strides in this direction. Working with the Asian Development Bank, it plans replace its polluting gas-powered tricycle taxi network and have 100,000 tricycles on the road by 2016, a down-payment on the 3.5 million passenger trikes in that country. The hope is to reduce urban pollution and allow drivers to reduce their operating expenses.

ADB says the e-trike fleet could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 260,000 tons per year and cut costs from 250 to 350 pesos (roughly $6-$8) per 100 kilometers with conventional fuel, to between 30 and 50 pesos using electricity. The difference will help offset the cost of the lithium-ion batteries and other hardware. ADB is subsidizing the $500 million program along with the central government and a local utility.

Source: Fast CoExist (link opens in a new window)

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Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment
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