00:00 As electric vehicles gain momentum in the country, this Jeep manufacturer is dressing
00:07 up e-Jeeps with the iconic "King of the Road" look.
00:11 To tell us about what's worth a ride, Francisco Motors e-Jeepney maker Elmer Francisco joins
00:17 us.
00:18 Good afternoon, sir, and welcome to Traffic Center.
00:20 Hi, good afternoon, Sam.
00:23 Thank you for having me back.
00:25 Sir, so right before this, you had just arrived from Los Angeles.
00:29 Were you there in relation to e-Jeeps?
00:32 Actually, I've been everywhere doing this.
00:38 Our battery technology development is actually in Los Angeles, in California.
00:44 So we are bringing that technology home to the Philippines and we'll be mass producing
00:49 them in Camarines Norte, in a special economic zone.
00:53 Oh, interesting.
00:54 So you'll be mass producing the batteries in Camarines Norte.
00:57 Is that correct?
00:58 Yes, yes.
00:59 And also some other components like the electric motors and many different parts of the Francisco
01:09 Jeepney.
01:10 Speaking of, sir, last March we spoke here on Traffic Center and we discussed what you
01:15 called your iconic mission of electrifying Jeepneys.
01:18 Can you give us an update on this aside from the battery that you just got from Los Angeles?
01:24 Yes, actually, we have been negotiating and doing due diligence with many different companies
01:32 and corporations.
01:33 But we recently just signed a joint venture agreement with a B Corp.
01:40 It's a NASDAQ listed electric vehicle manufacturer.
01:45 It's called Vivo Power and they have this subsidiary called Tembo ELV or Electric Light
01:50 Vehicles.
01:51 So we have signed a joint venture agreement with them.
01:55 They will help us develop this electric Jeepneys of which we have already hired top engineers
02:03 from global brands who have experience in global brands like in the likes of Tesla,
02:10 Toyota, and SpaceX, and also from Rivian.
02:14 We have a combined 50 years of experience in electric vehicle industry.
02:19 So basically, we are trying to address the market.
02:24 We have a $15 billion addressable market.
02:28 That means that's 250,000 Jeepneys that needs to be replaced.
02:32 So we don't plan to replace only 100 or 1,000 or 100,000.
02:37 We plan to replace all old Jeepneys with electric Francisco Jeepneys wherein our operators and
02:47 drivers will not be in debt.
02:50 So we're doing stuff thanks to address that concern.
02:56 Sir, so it seems like from March until now, you've made strides.
03:00 Congratulations on that.
03:02 There have been a lot of debates about this, but why do you think it's significant to retain
03:05 the iconic look of Jeepneys?
03:08 Yes, actually, like what I always mention, it's a part of our culture.
03:13 So many foreigners come to the Philippines and it's part of their bucket list to have
03:19 their photos taken in Jeepneys.
03:22 So why take away that piece of our identity and replace them with minibuses?
03:27 Actually, to be frank with you, it looks ugly.
03:32 It looks different.
03:33 It looks like a bus, like a truck.
03:36 So it looks better when you see, when you say it's a Jeepney, it looks like a Jeepney.
03:41 So you don't call a minibus a Jeepney because it's not a Jeepney, it's a minibus.
03:45 So we have to retain the iconic design, yet we can modernize it.
03:51 Just like the photos that you're seeing here, it conforms with the Philippine national standards.
03:58 The measurements, you can stand up inside.
04:01 The entrance is at the front right, front right side.
04:04 Then at the rear, there's an emergency exit or entrance for differently abled persons
04:11 or PWDs.
04:12 So there's a built-in ramp for wheelchair passengers.
04:18 We also have the CCTVs.
04:21 We have a capacity of 30 seated passengers and we can still accommodate 10 standing passengers,
04:29 so 30 to 40 passengers.
04:31 So those are some of the improvements that we did.
04:35 So we can retain the iconic design or iconic look that we call "King of the Road" or
04:41 "Hariyong ng Kalsada" while we're modernizing it.
04:45 Then on the emission side, there's no emission because we have decided to go full electric.
04:51 Right.
04:52 Sir, I wish we could talk more about this, but we're running out of time.
04:55 So really quickly, when will the release be of these eJeeps for Francisco Motors and
05:01 how much will it be?
05:03 Okay.
05:04 Our target is the first quarter of 2024.
05:09 We will start rolling out maybe the first few batches.
05:13 We will roll them out.
05:17 The price is, the last time we discussed about it, we are in the range of 1.8 million to
05:22 2 million, but we are still in the process of pulling it down to maybe 1 million pesos
05:28 or below.
05:29 So that's the price targets that we are going for.
05:33 Okay.
05:34 Thank you, Francisco Motors eJeepney maker, Elmar Francisco.
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