After the e-jeepneys, it will now be the turn of solar and battery-powered tricycles to ply Quezon City roads.
The Ang Kasangga Party-list and the Netherlands-based Technostrat design and research corporation have agreed to pilot test in Quezon City two e-tricycles they helped develop to complement the city government in its effort to protect the environment against exhaust and noise pollution.
Mayor Herbert Bautista personally drove one of the vehicles during a test run at the city hall grounds shortly after signing a memorandum of agreement with project proponents for the implementation of the e-tricycle project in QC.
Stylish and comfortable, the e-trikes will be offered to the Payatas and La Vista tricycle operators and drivers associations for a two-month pilot testing. Payatas and La Vista offer more challenge to the e-trikes because of their terrain.
The city’s department of public order and safety, through its tricycle regulatory unit, will ascertain the road worthiness of the e-trikes. The DPOS, headed by Elmo San Diego, will closely coordinate with the pollution control unit of the city’s environmental protection and waste management department to ensure the issuance of environmental clearance certification upon the successful testing of the project.
The e-tricycle can be acquired at a cost of P117 thousand each. The project designer said the e-trike can register an endurance range of 100 to 130 kilometers and can accommodate four persons.
Fares are similar to the amount charged by operators of regular four and two-stroke tricycles.
It takes about eight hours to re-charge the e-trikes. The charging stations will be solar-powered using 2,500-watt structural tiles and assisted by a wind turbine.
While the price tag for the eco-friendly trikes is more or less equal to that of the combustion-powered tricycles, the Technostrat-made transport utilities are cheaper to operate. A Technostrat tricycle’s operating cost per day is only P48 compared to the P200+ operational cost when using two-stroke engines.
Technostrat was represented by its president, Brian Stanley Jackson, during the presentation of the e-tricycle project while the Ang Kasangga Partylist was represented by Congressman Teodorico Haresco, whose group also agrees to assist potential buyers on funding requirements.
According to a study, an average combustion tricycle in Quezon City emits as much pollution as 70 cars. Given the more than 20,000 tricycles plying QC roads, the extent of pollution is equivalent to 1.4 million cars.
During the presentation of the e-tricycle project, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte said the city is open to the possibility of allowing the use of renewable energy and green technologies for the city’s transport sector to mitigate the ill-effects of pollution to public health and safety.
Project partners for the e-tricycle project also include Winace Holdings Philippines. -30- Precy/ Ramir/ Maureen Quinones, PAISO
