This Chinese Car Brand Is Powering the Largest EV Fleet in the Philippines

Chinese carmaker BYD recently announced its partnership with Meralco subsidiary eSakay, Inc. for the latter’s Green Mobility Program, which will use the brand’s electric vehicle (EV) models, the BYD e2 and T3. The electrification of eSakay’s vehicle fleet is all part of the company’s commitment towards greener and more sustainable transportation solutions.

The new EV fleet was unveiled earlier this month by Meralco’s chief sustainability officer and eSakay president and CEO Raymond B. Ravelo. “Beyond delivering accessible and reliable electricity service to households and businesses, we, in Meralco, are also at the forefront of providing sustainable solutions to our customers,” he said. “With our important and intensified shift to vehicle electrification, we hope to influence and inspire others to follow suit and to likewise embed sustainability in their operations.  

Photo by BYD.

“Our strategic collaboration with BYD underscores eSakay’s continuing commitment to promote the country’s important transition to electrified transport,” he added. “It also highlights and heightens our pledge to provide our clients with top-notch, reliable, and fit-for-purpose electric vehicles, supported by requisite charging infrastructure solutions. This is all geared towards enabling our clients to enhance their operations while advancing their sustainability agenda.”

“I’m so proud to be part of this Green Mobility program and honored to enable companies and individuals that lead by example towards sustainable mobility ultimately preserving our environment. I’m excited to take part in serving our community more, with every conventional vehicle’s switch to electric expected to benefit everyone, and not only the ones who bought them,” said Mark Andrew Tieng, managing director of BYD Philippines.

Photo by BYD.

Photo by BYD.

BYD is an acronym that stands for Build Your Dreams and is one of China’s most innovative companies that led to the evolution of production of EVs in China. BYD cars use game-changing blade batteries that provide safer, lighter, more reliable and more energy dense storage for its EVs.

One of China’s top innovation company is also one of Warren Buffett’s investment gems. Some 13 years ago, the investment guru and one of the world’s wealthiest men, dubbed as the Oracle of Omaha, made a $232 million investment in BYD, against the advice of his lieutenant, Charlie Munger. But later, Munger said, “This guy is a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch—something like Edison in solving technical problems, and something like Welch in getting done what he needs to do.”

Photo by BYD.

And about BYD’s founder Wang Chuanfu Munger said, “I have never seen anything like it.” Wang grew the BYD business into one of the world’s largest manufacturers of rechargeable cell phone batteries before focusing its sights into the automotive EV industry. Last March, Fortune reported that Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway’s 2020 earnings report showed that Buffett’s bold bet on BYD has now been paying huge dividends.

“By parlaying BYD’s rechargeable battery technology into a fast-growing carmaking operation, Wang had gained a foothold in the fledgling electric vehicle (EV) market—building longer-lasting batteries and cheaper vehicles than American and Japanese manufacturers were managing to do at the time,” according to the Fortune article. “In BYD, Buffett and Munger believed they had found a company with a shot at one day becoming the largest player in a global automobile market that was inevitably going electric.”