Meralco forms ‘eSakay’ for EV venture

Published March 10, 2018, 10:00 PM By Myrna M. Velasco

https://business.mb.com.ph/2018/03/10/meralco-forms-esakay-for-ev-venture/

Power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has set up new subsidiary “eSakay Inc” to be its corporate arm into electric vehicle (EV) ventures.

Meralco disclosed that the new corporate vehicle for EVs had already been incorporated with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The corporate unit, Meralco expounded shall be engaged in “the business of owning, maintaining and operating transport service networks of charging stations, batteries and vehicles utilizing electric energy and other alternative energy sources.

Meralco has not given definitive numbers yet on its planned mass scale rollout of charging networks of EVs, although company officials indicated that they will pursue this business segment on a market-driven paradigm – preferably not underpinned by any subsidy scheme.

“Our intent is to help in the early development and acceleration of the potential of e-vehicles in the country,” Meralco President Oscar S. Reyes said. Meralco’s foray into this game-changing venture along the energy-transport nexus, as emphasized by executives, is anchored on three goals: one, is about providing an alternative; two, it is aligned with development overseas; and three, it helps in environmental sustainability.

Meralco Senior Vice President Alfredo S. Panlilio noted that the company’s proof-of-concept on this sphere shall be the electric tricycles and other forms of public utility vehicles.

“What we’re doing is, we’re not going massively first,” he said, yet he qualified that there is immense prospect of giving electric mobility swing to the 2,000 electric tricycles just in the city of Mandaluyong alone.

And while gradually pursuing ventures on this space, Panlilio noted that the utility firm is also “learning along with the advancements happening in the EV sector.”

Part of the strategy, he added, will be for Meralco to “tap a partner on the manufacturing side and then we can look at the numbers that we can deploy.”

He added “right now, the easiest that we see when it comes to rollout is with the e-trikes, it will be more difficult to go into electric buses and e-jeepneys, because we also have to look at the design of the vehicles.”

Just last month, Meralco in partnership with Japanese firm Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation (MMPC) set in motion the first quick charging station at the central office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), purposively to demonstrate the viability of EVs in the country.

The utility firm noted that “the charging station was donated by MMPC in fulfillment of its role in the reduction of environmental pollution,” a complementary step following its donation of 10 EV units from its Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Outlander plug-in hybrid fleets.