I’ve written here before about the Philippines apparent lack of progress with electric vehicles. Today, some important news that gives me a little hope …
LTO approves use of E. Trike
November 30, 2008 5:45 pm by pna
MANILA, Nov. 30 — After releasing the first-ever license plate of the so-called E-Jeepneys (electric jeepneys) of Makati City, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) recently endorsed the friendly passenger electronic tricycle or E. Trike.
LTO Chief Alberto Suansing said during the presentation commended the Filipino inventor from Marilao, Bulacan who invented the “No Gas” “No Noise” E. Trike.
He said experts from the Motor Vehicle Inspection Section led by the Chief Engineer Joel Donato were fully satisfied with the safety of the E. Trike that would give the manufacturer a go-signal to make a unit.
“The inventor and the manufacturer said that people are raving for the E. Trike because it is economical and environment friendly,” Suansing said…. Read some more about the Philippine LTO moving into the current century here.
6 pax E-trike
Let’s point out the obvious here. Although I am a big supporter of alternative fueled vehciles, especially 100% non-polluting “pure” electrics, they are not well suited to many of the tasks we put our personal and small buisness vehicles to in the USA, Canada, Austraila and other “wide open spaces” countries.
They aren’t suitable for every use here in the Philippines, either. But they are highly suited to several of the most imporant uses … local tricycles and local jeepney routes.
By far the largest commerecial use of vehicles here in the Philippines is the neighborhood tricucle and the Jeepney that plys ‘short-haul … getting us around the same town or perhaps one or two neighboring municipalities. Both transporation icons are characterized by short trips, tons of ‘standing time’, either waiting for riders or waiitng for traffic, low speeds and lots of start-stop operation.
3 pax e-trike
These conditions are absolutely the best conditions for simple battery powered electic vehicles. It’s quite easy, and well within current developed battery and electric motor technology to make a trike or a jeepney that only reaches about 40 or 50 kph speeds (25 to 30 mile sper hour) and that has a range between recharing of about 100 kilometrs … 60 miles or so. Overnight recharging of 6 to 8 hours will work just fine, too, for a vehcile with this sort of “duty cycle”.
How jeepneys Should Look
It’s taken years for the Land Tranpotaion Officvce to ‘see the light’ (I wonder if it was an electric light? 
) but let’s not be unhappy, let’s celebarte. What a huge advance this will be in terms of air pollution … no smoke belchers, and don’t forget noise pollution … thousands and thaousnads of noisy, smelly snarling and dronng tricucle two-stokes gone forever.
A great hope for 2009 here in the Philippines.
Oh, and by the way, I did mention these alternatives can cost less than the noisy, smelly, energy wasters of today, didn’t I? This is the Philippines, we know it has to be tipid … when you live off the day-to-day earnings of a vehicle it’s pretty hard to make investments for the future … you have to bring home food to hungry mouths each and every day.
Popularity: 15% [?]
But can the e-trike carry four passengers, a lounge suite and a small pig?
@Ken Lovell: Ha ha Ken, I recon the big one pictured can … that’s at least a ’6 pax’ rathing which is way more thna 4 people and a room’s worth of furniture … now, of course it would depend on the size of the og
Oh I am sure they will find a way to do it.
Have they done the research into the cost of operating the E-Trikes?
From what I recall the price of Electricity in the RP is very high and does the average low income Trike operator have access to the recharging facilities to operate them.
It would be helpful to have a few solar panels installed on each trike. Unfortunately this would add to the cost, but save on electricity. They do have nice flexible ones for boat decks. You can even walk on them.
Plus, the cost of buying a new trike for most Filipinos would be prohibitive. I saw my first electric bicycle up here in Austria – it goes for 60 kms but requires all night charging when empty, and that is for a one-person vehicle. It’s a great idea though!
@Ellen: The official capacity is ‘just one more’
If there’s an extra pig or two you could let it run alongside on a leash, I imagine.
@Neal in RI: Good points, Neal. On cost. I’ve seen several studies that indicate it would be a lot cheaper. From acti\ual expereince, I currently pay right at 18 cents US per kilowat hour. How much would the overnight charger use? I dunno but the average wuld surely be less thna 1 kilowatt each hour … so 8 hours of charge should be well under 8 kilowatt hours or less than $1.44 per day …wich is way ubnder athe cost for a half gallon of gas … plus two stroke oil which is exspensive.
I had a cousin selling much smaller electic scooters up in olongapo (he went broke waiitng for LTO approval … I think I wrote about it n Bob’s blog, anyway he said it would be well under $30 USD per night … but those were smaller vehciles/batteries so i added in a large fudge factor. It would have to be less espensive what what these gys have to pay now. So many less moving parts too.
Even more important than just the cost alone … theair and \nois epollution reduction would be sweet, to say the least.
I urban areas (where these things would be well suited) charging facilitres wouldn’t be a problem … most guys in my area who have trikes live in houses with electricity … and there would always be some neighbor who would let you stick a cord in the window for a small fee
@John in Austria: You’re reading ny mnind, John. Actually the cousin who had the electric motorcycle import business had a clmsy protoype e-trike … it had a big flat roof with two flat panels and it was good for four hours r mnor eon a sunnt day withut any plug-in charge. If I were building them/selling them solar pannels would be a must … the Philippines is ultra-rich in solar energy.
I also have the idea (free to anyone who wnats it) of charge staions. tricycles all ‘base’ out of certain ‘terminals’, owned by the various local TODA (Tricycle Owner Driver Associations). You don’t just buy a trike and start driving, you have to be accepted and pay for entry ito the TODA. Well the TODA oculd own spare batteris and j\keep them in a rack, charged. If a driver was running low he could just roll in and swap his batteries for freshly charged one … for a fee of course.
The part that is mazing to me is none of this is anything new … these are just electric gold cart batteries, motors abnd controllers. Gold courses have been using them for years, but trike drivers don’t play golf and golfers don’t ride tricycles.
Hi Philly,Interesting article,good to see advances in e-power.Its amazing some of the things available, checkout, electricmotorsport.com although not relevant to PI,it may interest some readers,regards Chas.
@Chas: Thnaks Chas, I’ll be looking at the site. You know back in the 1920′s when the auto industry first began to take off it was by no means certain that gas engined cars were the best. Google Baker Electric or the Stanley brothers. Electric vehilces, within their limitations, are nothing new, work very well and have been running successfully for more thna a century. A friend on another Philippine-related site used to be a manager for the department of Water and Power in LA. Thye had a number of electric cars in their fleet.. ideal for foremen going out to supervise a job, running local earrands, etc. The mamagement reserved them for company drivers who had committed some action that required disiplne … they took away their gas cars and gave them the electrics as punishment. Wonder why none of the employees … who were in the elctic power business … were very keen on electic cars. You don’t think it might have been a triumph of perception over reality, do you?