Various civil society and green groups are protesting against the $101 million loan funds provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the electric tricycles technology project, saying that the said funds should have been used for the more effective solar generation project.
According to Greenpeace Southeast Asia campaigner Francis dela Cruz, the subsidies given by ADB for E-trikes are not important, especially since the said project has a flawed design. He further stated that ADB should not have diverted the money away from renewable energy and feed-in-tariffs, since these are considered the country’s main priorities.
As a recall, ADB has started the e-trike project as early as 2010, seen as a way to solve the country’s increasing transportation problem, without spending too much and having as little impact to the environment as possible.
ADB said that these electric tricycles are very efficient, due to the fact that they use as much as 75% of their energy and converts it into power, unlike most internal combustion engine which only makes use of 20% of their energy. Aside from that, ADB further noted that e-trikes do not produce noise, has no tailpipe emissions and can even be charged at night.
However, the green groups in the country were not impressed by the plan. They argued that there are various aspects missing with regards to the project’s design, such as, the absence of disposal, after sales service and also if there are replacement programs included.
Aside from that, ADB also plans to make use of lithium ion batteries for the e-trikes. Greenpeace criticized this moved, saying that lithium-ion batteries have safety and maintenance issues, a reason why it was recently recalled in the US.
