The Cebu City Government has been allocating close to 300,000 liters of gasoline annually for its more or less 1,300 vehicles. According to Councilor Nestor Archival Sr., the City has to spend around P400 million yearly not just for gasoline, but also for other needs to maintain the vehicles’ good state such as lubricants.
Eyeing to cut the City’s dependence on petroleum products, Archival has sponsored a resolution requesting two committees—the transportation and the environment—to study the practicability of adopting electric vehicles.
The resolution, passed by the City Council, is “in line with the policy direction” of Mayor Michael Rama who wants to make Cebu City a “Singapore-like city, thus it is best to find other alternative modes for cost-saving,” Archival said. The minority floor leader further said that there’s “a need to consider alternative sources of fuel like electric energy which is clean, safe, reliable, efficient and cost-saving that can be used to run/operate” the City’s vehicles.
As the planet is warming, owning an electric vehicle or EV is a big deal because of the fact that the motorist can drive for kilometer after kilometer without emissions. The EV owner is driving guilt-free as the vehicle does not hurt Mother Earth.
Some of the other pros of driving an EV, apart from zero emissions, include the vehicle’s comfort and low running costs.
As for the two committees’ study on the resolution, the City Council gave them until Aug. 15 to submit their recommendation.
Replacing over a thousand fuel-powered vehicles is a huge task. The councilors, for sure, will consider the cons of shifting to electric vehicles and these include charging points, charging time, battery range and the price. The other question is, what will happen to an EV in a sudden downpour and when it’s stuck in a flooded street?
If ever the City would decide to shift to sustainable transportation, it could do it gradually, ditching fuel-powered vehicles batch by batch.
And if ever the City would adopt EVs, it could set itself as a model and influence well-off residents to also ditch their diesel- or gasoline-powered vehicles in favor of EVs.