A Chinese company has expressed interest in putting up an electric vehicles factory in the country.
Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said that BYD Automobile Co Ltd., a car company based in Guangdong, has also approached the Department of Trade and Industry regarding its proposal.
“I met with BYD. BYD said that they are looking at the potential to manufacture electric vehicles here,” he said.
“They came to us already. They showed me, they showed the DTI, they showed their model, their prototype. They’re waiting for us (to give them the go signal),” he added.
As of 2010, BYD’s production capacity was about 700,000 units per year, and its sales had reached 519,800, making the company the sixth-largest Chinese car-maker by units sold.
As part of its energy efficiency program, the DOE is mounting a campaign to promote the use and commercialization of electric vehicles.
Last month, Energy Undersecretary Loreta G. Ayson said that the DOE is set to deploy 20 more electric tricycles this year in Metro Manila.
She said that the DOE is still trying to determine the city or municipality where it will deploy the new batch of electric tricycles. She said the new batch would be an improvement from the earlier two units deployed in Madaluyong in November.
Ayson also said that Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) had expressed interest in putting up charging stations for the e-tricycles.
The entire program, which involves deploying 20,000 e-tricycles in Metro Manila, will cost $70 million and is being financed by the Asia Development Bank.
The agency said the 20,000 vehicles account for 10 percent of the number of tricycles in Metro Manila.
