Philippine Science Department Expands Academic Partnerships to Push EV Adoption

The Philippines is pushing to scale up electric vehicles built by its own universities and researchers, as unstable fuel prices squeeze the transport sector. The Department of Science and Technology is moving several homegrown projects from lab testing into real-world use, including the M/B Dalaray, the country's first domestically built electric passenger ferry, now running on Manila's Pasig River with fast-charging stations at its terminals. On land, electric tricycles are also part of the push: the standard E-Trike has finished trial runs in several regional cities, while the C-Trike, a kit that converts existing gas tricycles to electric, is heading toward mass production. Field data cited by the agency puts the C-Trike's running cost at 0.88 pesos per kilometer, versus 2.30 pesos for a conventional gas tricycle.

Other projects include a 23-seat electric jeepney built to meet the country's public transit modernization rules, a hybrid electric train being tested with the national railway, and a fast-charging system called CharM that cuts charging time from six hours to about 30 minutes. That charging network is expanding beyond Manila to island provinces, with new solar-powered stations planned for Romblon.

None of this is available in the US, and there's no rebate or program here tied to it. For a homeowner, it's mostly a signal of where global EV and charging technology is heading, particularly the emphasis on fast charging and low-cost retrofit kits, ideas that eventually show up in other markets, including the one you shop in.