“We expect electric vehicles to reach price parity with conventional models,” says Meralco’s EV Product Manager Anthony T. Agoncillo, who has helped push MERALCO’s advocacy to get more EVs on local roads.

MERALCO’s outlook is similar to the picture painted by BloombergNEF which suggests that the total cost of ownership of EVs will be on the same playing field as combustion engine vehicles by 2027. This is based on conversations with car companies that have started to introduce electric vehicle models locally.

This development, says Agoncillo, is happy news for MERALCO who has championed the adoption of battery electric vehicles for about a decade.

“On an overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) basis, the savings from using electricity as a power source for vehicles can be as much as 70 percent compared with gas-fueled cars. Apart from the lower cost, another potential driver of a shift to EVs is the ecological benefits of zero emission or being carbon neutral,” Agoncillio continues.

On the subject of being carbon neutral, EVs cannot achieve that on their own, especially if the power used to generate electricity comes from coal. With that, MERALCO says that they’re aiming to contract 1,500 megawatts from renewable energy producers in the next five years, and on its own, build 1,500 megawatts of generation capacity using renewable sources.

Currently, the Philippines generates around 42.8 percent of its electricity using coal followed by natural gas at 24.2 percent. Renewables currently make up just 0.05 percent.

This is not stopping MERALCO, however. In 2020, they launched its Green Mobility program that aims to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions by gradually replacing its gas-fueled vehicles in its fleet. This year, they plan to roll out 121 EVs, leading to 6 percent fleet electrification. By 2030, Meralco aims to achieve 25 percent fleet electrification.