By Victor V. Saulon, Sub-Editor

MANILA ELECTRIC Co. (Meralco) has created a new subsidiary that will be engaged in owning, maintaining and operating a network of charging stations for electric vehicles, the company told the stock exchange on Tuesday.

“We see opportunity in the development of e-vehicles moving forward. At the same time, it’s also pro-environment. So we wanted to also contribute, of course, to the reduction in [carbon] emissions,” William S. Pamintuan, Meralco’s lead lawyer, told reporters on Tuesday.

“It is common knowledge that transport is the number one emitter of carbon emission in the country right now,” he added.

In its disclosure, Meralco said the new subsidiary’s network will also serve batteries and vehicles using electric energy and other alternative energy sources. It has yet to decide a name for the entity. The move has been approved by its board of directors.

Mr. Pamintuan said the new unit will tap “new opportunities,” including stimulating demand for electricity as e-vehicles are additional consumers of electricity.

“So hopefully it will also drive increased consumption moving forward and increased demand,” he said.

Lawrence S. Fernandez, Meralco vice-president and head of utility economics, said the company was looking at putting up the charging stations within the distribution utility’s franchise area — largely Metro Manila.

“The target will first be public utility vehicles, so e-trikes, e-jeeps, e-shuttles,” he said, adding that the next opportunity would possibly be private e-vehicles.

Part of the plan is to create an e-vehicle ecosystem, he said.

“It’s a developing market… In other countries, they’ve shown that there’s already a trend to shift away from internal combustion engines to e-vehicles. We think that they also might be a market for that in the Philippines, especially e-vehicles,” he said.

Mr. Fernandez said the pilot charging station to be put up by Meralco accepts both European and Japanese standards, currently the accepted benchmark for the industry worldwide.

Meralco’s move comes as another group in the energy sector has made headway in creating an e-vehicle ecosystem.

The rival — QEV Philippines Electromobility Solutions and Consulting Group, Inc. — said in October that it was looking to install 100 fast chargers in SM malls and another 100 in Shell stations, in line with its target of putting up 200 charging stations by 2022.

QEV Philippines said it was aiming to complete the first 50 within the first half of 2018. It is also focused on building an ecosystem of electric chargers and electric vehicles, and bringing them together to develop a market.

At present, separate companies put up the charging stations and the electric vehicles, but not an ecosystem where both can thrive, she said. QEV Philippines’ parent, QEV Capital Pte. Ltd., is doing the same initiative globally.

QEV Philippines is the joint venture between Filipino businessman Enrique M. Aboitiz and his Spanish business partner Enrique Bañuelos.

On Tuesday, shares in Meralco rose 0.74% to close at P326.60 each.

Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT, Inc.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.

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