Electric Jeepney is LTO-licensed in the Philippines-a Start of the Green Movement

The Philippines Land Transportation Office (LTO) released the first-ever license plate for an electric vehicle to a locally-assembled electric jeepney.

The 14-passenger e-jeepney, manufactured by PhUV Inc. (the business arm of the Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturers Association of the Philippines – MVPMAP), is now going through pilot testing on the Legaspi jeepney route in Makati City.

Some of the parts and components for the vehicle obviously had to be obtained from offshore international manufacturers (such as the motors from a China manufacturer), but the design, fabrication, and assembly were accomplished by PhUV, Inc. in the Philippines. A second e-jeepney is slated to be added to the Salcedo Village route in Makati City.

As part of the e-jeepney transportation system, the Green Renewable Independent Power Producer (GRIPP) organization (PhUV, Inc. and environmental group Green Pease are GRIPP members), funded in part by the Doen Foundation of the Netherlands and Green Peace, is in the process of creating a biodigester for generating electricity from biodegradable household wastes and a depot to store and serve as the charging station/terminal for the e-jeepneys.

PhUV, Inc. plans to add three body styles of the smaller electric tricycles (e-trikes) to their assembly lines to serve the transportation needs of the more rural areas of the Philippines. PhUV is making two demonstration "e-trikes" (a 5-seater and a cargo pickup). The vehicles can run at speeds of 40 kph and require 6 to 8 hours of charging.

PhUV stated that they plan to sell 200 units of the e-jeepneys during the next two years. Green Peace has ordered 44 of the units of which 26 will be delivered by the end of this year.

e-Jeepney? In Makati?

Okay, for some of you, the question may be.... "What's a Jeepney?"

A jeepney is a very common mode of transportation in the Philippines. And, yes, it's based on the general form of the WWII version of the American jeep. After WWII, there were bunches of jeeps left behind as the Allied Forces left the Philippines and headed for home. Entrepreneurial and creative Filipinos salvaged these jeeps, fixed them up, lengthened the bodies, decorated them inside and out, and put them on the streets as an economic "bus system" that is sort of a cross between taxi and bus service and abstract art gallery. They are usually ornately decorated with wild colors, chrome, and ornaments.

The local government of Makati City (suburb of Manila) is planning on having 10 electric jeepneys (e-Jeepney) by December of this year. They already have three out there running around, but they want to add 7 more before the end of the year. The eJeeps are locally designed and built by the Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing Association of the Philippines (MVPMAP)--a consortium of about 130 Philippine automotive parts and components manufacturing companies.

They take a long time to procure and assemble because many of the components that make up an "eJeepney" are imported from foreign suppliers. (As with most finished products today, right?)

It will be interesting to see how the e-Jeepneys fare in the heavy traffic around Manila. Also, I'd be interested in seeing their "recharging stations" or whether they are pure-electric or whether or not they are hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV) or plug-in-hybrid-electric vehicles (PHEV). The flat roof of these vehicles would be a handy place to install photovoltaic panels to help keep the batteries charged while they are sitting in parking lots and at the curbs waiting for fares.

(much of the information in this post came from the Philippines Today newspaper Sept 25-Oct 1 edition)

Photo by Dave Gardner