Thousands of bright, colorful vehicles, re-crafted from abandoned US army jeeps after the second world war, transport people through Manila’s congested roads and over rugged mountainous valleys. Known as jeepneys, they’re the Philippines’ most ubiquitous public vehicle and a cherished national heritage symbol. But they’re also notorious emitters of air and noise pollution.
Today, they’re being replaced by and converted into e-jeepneys – eco-friendly versions of the iconic vehicle – to help tackle the country’s high pollution levels and ease heavy traffic. This new breed of minibus runs purely on electricity supplied by rechargeable automotive batteries. It’s all part of a wider government push for electric vehicles in the Philippines.
One company helping to make this possible is Spanish electric vehicle developer QEV Technologies. Perhaps better known for its racing pedigree – QEV Tech managed the NextEV-NIO team to victory in the inaugural 2014/15 Formula E championship – off the race track, the company is committed to sharing its expertise with the wider mobility industry to accelerate the transition to electric technology.
QEV Tech wants to use their technology to create clean cities. This led them to set up a new electric bus business line, where they sell an e-kit platform to manufacturers or partner with others to develop a complete e-bus.
“There are a lot of smaller manufacturers out there producing the external shell of a bus, but they don’t always have the ability to move to electric,” said Joan Orús, COO of QEV Tech. “It’s hard for them to develop this technology from scratch. So we sell them the platform or work with them to build a full e-bus.”
As QEV Tech rides the electric transformation wave, they had to transition quickly from a startup with only a handful of engineers to a team of more than 50. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform on cloud helps to bring everyone together, streamline workflows and collaborate with manufacturers around the world to help create a new generation of eco-friendly vehicles.
To find out more about QEV Tech’s journey, read the full story here.
