Philippines launches electric tricycles

The Philippines wants to replace millions of petrol-powered tricycles with electric ones as part of efforts to clean up the nation’s polluting mass transport system, President Benigno Aquino said Friday.
The government will initially replace 20,000 tricycles that ply minor streets across the capital Manila and eventually expand the project throughout the country, Aquino said in a speech to government employees.
It is hoped the scheme will save the impoverished country tens of millions of dollars annually.
“The (project) is an ambitious multi-year plan to wean public utility vehicles from the use of gasoline and diesel and to encourage them to shift to alternatives like natural gas, electricity and hybrid engines,” he said.
“I would like to see the day when nearly all public utility vehiclesâ