Filipinos are embracing electric 3-wheelers faster than officials can regulate | Hacker News Reader

Filipinos are embracing electric 3-wheelers faster than officials can regulate

restofworld.org

55 pointsPaulHoule12 comments

> The Philippines has been slow to adopt electric vehicles,

That doesn't surprise me, anyone who has lived there knows how terrible the grid is. Brown-outs are a (frequent) fact of life, entire outages not uncommon. I've seen the Manila Airport lose power on multiple occasions while waiting to get on a flight.

What does surprise me is the slow adoption to solar power, my guess is that the grid isn't prepared for that either, and off-grid setups can be fairly expensive for many that need it most.

Off-grid can be pretty simple and cheap using "solar generators."

True, though good quality high capacity batteries are likely out of reach for most, and getting them shipped to the Philippines might be a challenge (In my experience things can get shipped and arrive from the US to PH in a couple weeks at most, then they get lost in the abyss for months, in my experience they always arrive, if not months later.)

Also, I do wonder if running on 220V makes the AC side more challenging/expensive, of course if you can run most things off DC this point is moot.

The car EVs try to be in a price class above a Toyota subcompact so I think they can't really compete for the taxi volume, etc, before any logistics.

EVs would be fine with a few hours of outage here and there, but the light EVs are going to be easier to move to battery swapping if needed and are price competitive with vehicles in classes that already sell well in the Philippines.

Even saying there is a "grid" here is making a mistake, insofar as it gives one the impression of a planned, engineered, professional approach to power delivery. This is simply not the case. Like most things in the Philippines, the power "grid" is just barely functional, with tree-cutting, storms, and incompetence enough to turn off the lights for hours and even days.

Not only good off-grid solar setups are expensive, but installers also cut every corner possible and impossible in order to drive the cost down no matter whether the result is safe. For example, they will sell you an inverter with a step-approximated "sine wave" output if you don't ask otherwise, and will connect it to the battery directly, bypassing the controller that protects it from too much discharge, because that controller is not powerful enough.

RE " ...... slow adoption to solar power....." My guess is it would because of lack of government $$$ I am in Philippines at present after a absence of several years. In Negros. Not many human powered pedal tricycles all seem to be electric now now more food peddling . Still lots motorbike tricycles. I have noticed lots solar powered , movement triggered security floodlights ....

These types of vehicles have been banned from main roads in Metro Manila since April.

The problem is, people without a driver's license can operate them, owing to the "bike" classification or lack of vehicle classification. Imagine a person who lacks knowledge of traffic rules driving a heavy, high-speed vehicle on chaotic Philippine roads.

The typical use-case of these vehicle is "hatid-sundo," or parents driving their children to and from school. I have yet to see a driver or the children wear helmets.

However, soon these vehicles will require registration and proper classification, and only licensed drivers will be permitted to operate them.

On a separate note, Tesla started posting local job listings a few days ago, hinting expansion in the country.

> Imagine a person who lacks knowledge of traffic rules driving a heavy, high-speed vehicle on chaotic Philippine roads.

Sounds like normal in Southeast Asia? Totally chaotic and an e-bike/trike sounds preferable imho.

I was in Manila last month, didn't see any electric vehicles.

The jeepney isnt exactly enviroment friendly, but it gets the job done and is easy to repair/maintain. Thats where the focus is in that kind of economy.

The Philippines are really ripe for fast e-bikes and trikes. Not going much faster than a 30mph e-bike can go anyways most of the time.

anecdotally electric scooters are quite popular in my neck of the woods and if I were to "skate where the puck is going to be", that'd be a place worth skating to.

This seems like a similar situation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com