Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD to provide 10 buses for Philippines

MANILA - China's battery and electric vehicle maker BYD announced on Wednesday that it will provide the Philippines with the first-ever 10 electric buses, which are expected to ply Manila's roads in July.

Two of the 10 electric buses have been delivered while eight more are expected to be delivered next month.

Liu Xueliang, vice-general manager of the BYD sales, told Xinhua that BYD and Columbian Motors Corporation(CMC), one of the Philippines' largest bus manufacturers, signed the agreement in October 2017 to purchase the 10 e-buses from BYD.

Arsenio Yap, CMC president, said the 10 electric buses will be the first in the Philippines.

Yap said there are about 9,000 buses plying Manila's roads every single day. "With the all-electric buses, we will make the transportation in Metro Manila more environment-friendly, more convenient, healthier and safer," Yap said.

The 80-passengers buses can cover up to a 250-km trip on a single charge.

Manila is the capital and largest city in the Philippines with more than 12 million people.

According to studies, the traffic congestion in the Metro Manila is getting worse and is costing 3.5 billion pesos (roughly $70 million) in lost opportunities every day, highlighting the need for new and modern infrastructure to ease the congestion.

The jeepneys remain the main transport for millions of people in Metro Manila.

However, old and rickety jeepneys are being blamed for polluting the air and causing traffic jams.

The Philippine government vowed to push through with its plan to ban jeepneys that are older than 10 years from the streets and replace the diesel-fuelled passenger cars with the electric jeepneys.

Liu said BYD has rich experiences in manufacturing electric vehicles and hopes to contribute to the Philippine government's efforts to modernize the jeepneys.

"We are working with our Philippine partners to help them develop battery-operated or electric-operated jeepneys provide," Liu said.