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ELAIA Green Vehicles, which adopts Toyota Industries' motor controllers, is one of the Philippines' leading electric three-wheeled vehicle (E-Trike) manufacturers and also handles the E-Trike operation management business. This time, we interviewed Mr. Mike Puno of ELAIA Green Vehicles, actively working on the electrification of three-wheeled taxis which is an important public transportation for citizens, about the history and thoughts.

Hello. I am Mike Puno, COO of ELAIA Green Vehicles.
In the Philippines, engine three-wheeled taxis called Tricycles are very popular as citizens’ transportation, and there are more than 4 million of them registered throughout the country. We were founded in 2011 and took on the challenges of replacing conventional engine drive with electric motor drive and introducing E-Trikes to the Philippines. Therefore, our chairman foresaw back in 2011 that E-Trikes would play an important role in the future of public transportation in this country.

Our goal is to provide vehicles that are environmentally friendly and allow Tricycle drivers in the Philippines to live a better life. To reduce the environmental impact, we aimed to introduce E-Trikes as soon as possible, but research and development took longer than initially expected. We repeated vehicle benchmarking and driving evaluations of multiple E-Trikes over several years, but we had a hard time driving them in a place with lots of steep hills. Another problem was that battery technology was not yet mature at the time.

When we evaluated Toyota Industries' motors and controllers on a vehicle, we could develop an E-Trike that could carry many passengers even in a place with steep gradients. Toyota Super Drive AC Motor we adopted was powerful enough to drive more comfortably in hilly areas than conventional Tricycles. Furthermore, Toyota Industries' product quality helped customers confident in purchasing the E-Trike.
Toyota Industries is a very important strategic partner for us. The motors and controllers perform extremely well, and the technical support during the development stage is also detailed, which is a major factor in the success of our vehicle development. Customers also feel confident due to the brand power of Toyota Industries.

The Philippine government continues to support the growth of the EV industry, and our business is expected to grow significantly in the near future. By continuing to sell to not only individual drivers but also to tricycle taxi operation management companies and expanding our own operation management business, we hope to provide better service to passengers and contribute to the modernization of the country's transportation system. We plan to introduce E-Trikes beyond our base in Antipolo City to other parts of the Philippines within this year.

Our expectations for Toyota Industries' motors and controllers remain unchanged. We hope that Toyota Industries will continue to provide the high performance and quality.