We recently had the first Asean Electric Vehicle (EV) and Hybrid Summit at the World Trade Center and had participants from Asean and other parts of the world, as well as participating institutions, such as the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines (Campi). Campi is the primary association of the automotive industry in the Philippines and actively participated in the EV Summit.
Not only did Campi have the largest booth which exhibited EV and hybrid vehicles of its members, but also provided international speakers from Toyota, Nissan and BAIC. It was quite interesting to note the presentations made by the speakers, and a number of their points stuck in my mind. In terms of global sales, the top 3 were very close to each other, and they were all in the 17,000+ units range. The No. 1 was Tesla of Elon Musk, followed by Toyota and in close third was BAIC, which is based in Beijing and is partly owned by Daimler AG.
If you just looked at the EVs running around in the Philippines, you would think that they are nothing more than electric golf carts with larger and equally flimsy bodies, or tricycles running on batteries. While I would applaud the EV movement in the Philippines for their pioneering effort, I think it is about time to radically change the image of EVs from backyard-style developed designs and manufacture using lead acid batteries, to the mainstream high performance and luxury vehicles that the rest of the industrialized world knows it to be.
At $535,500, the 2017 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce Roadster with a 6.5-liter, 12-cylinder engine that goes from zero to 100 kilometers per hour (kph) in 2.9 seconds, is one of the world’s most expensive sports car. In comparison, the Tesla Model S sedan that can seat five people comfortably, can reach zero to 100 kph in just 2.5 seconds at a price of only $135,150. One thing for sure is that EVs are or can be fast vehicles and not our idea of the slow golf cart. As a matter of fact, the EV world record for the fastest acceleration from zero to 100 kph is at 1.513 seconds set on June 22, 2016.
Another big issue in most Filipino’s minds is the range of EVs, the time it takes to charge and battery replacement. I did get to discuss these matters with the speaker from BAIC, Mr. Richard Huang, and their sedan has a range of more than 400 km on one charge. You can apparently also charge these vehicles from your home outlet, although it could take up to eight hours to do so. As an alternative, you could swap batteries in one of their charging stations in the same amount of time it would take you to load up gas the conventional way.
I also asked the BAIC speaker if these EV have air conditioning, and was glad to hear that it does and there is no problem with the batteries. Using air conditioning will, however, reduce the range by 10 percent. On the other hand, the real problem is providing heating, which will reduce the range by 30 percent. Since we do not use heating here, this should not be an issue. The batteries also have a long life span and are guaranteed up to 3,000 charging cycles. So this means that at 400 km per charge, your batteries should last up to 1.2 million km. The batteries will probably last longer than the car.
Best of all, under the proposed tax-reform program of this administration, EVs are not subject to excise tax, to promote their use as an environmentally friendly modes of transportation, since they do have zero emission. It looks like if we do manage to get more affordable and conventional-looking EV vehicles here, there may be more people who want to have an EV. I certainly would. I also want to extend my warmest welcome to Dr. Haiyang Dong, the president and CEO of BAIC International, who just arrived in the Philippines to inaugurate the BAIC Philippines Flagship Showroom and we will certainly discuss the future of EV in the Philippines.
(Comments may be sent to georgechuaph@yahoo.com)