Batteries can go up to 20 years and still be around 80% capacity. For sure na mga 90+% pa rin yan around the first 10 years.

A Hino (Toyota) Class II PUV goes for around 2.4m for an AC variant. So, malapit na sa price. Comparing to traditional jeepneys should not be considered given na being phased out na sila.

Also, walang charging port so the passengers will not be waiting while this is charging. Swappable only ang batteries. Read the article properly, please.

With not much expense put into design, we can start with this design for its first outing. Once some revenue stream and more funding comes in, proponents can go online to get parts to give it better finishes. I remember there is a Hyundai Class 1 option for e-Jeeps and it is called Modern Jeep. Looks like a tolda (4-post tent) with 4 wheels and that is from a a multi-national brand already. Bigger challenge is how to make a e-Jeep closer to 1M or any initiative here won't fly or ride :)

CALB LiFePO4 batteries have a life span of 4000 cycles or 10 years only, after which you have to replace at an exorbitant cost. Since it will be constantly disconnected several times a day since the range is only 150 km at best and also because of the movement of the vehicle, that battery is expected to last a lot less than 10 years.
This EV has the lowest range compared to others available in the market and also the lowest horsepower rating of 20HP, that is why it has a top speed of only 35kph. For comparison, the Mitsubishi Mirage has 78HP, Vios 1.3 has 87HP and the old Isuzu 4BA1 and 4BC2 engines have 75HP and 88HP respectively making it severely underpowered.
This electric jeepney at P2.875M has no brand recognition and yet the proven branded Hino Toyota options is a lot less at 2.4M if your figures are correct and not malapit na as they are not equivalent in quality.
This option should be compared to the traditional jeepneys as they are the backbone of the transport economy and costs a lot less and since they have been offering reliable, sustainable and affordable transport to the masses at a fraction of the cost. Can your unproven, underpowered and costly option do the same? Or will it just benefit those who are actively promoting the so called "modernization".

4000 cycles will bring down the battery health to around 80% which is what is normally labeled as a usual lifespan but it doesn't mean it's dead. Pinoys won't throw away a battery just like that and given that there's two of them in one jeepney you can match a high health battery with a low health one and still get good average range. A 70% and a 100% battery will give you 85% of the 150km which is still pretty decent range since a jeepney's entire day's worth of trips is around 120km only.

Average speed in the metro won't go anywhere near 35kmph. How it compares to other cars doesn't really matter. For a heavy vehicle, as long as the torque is good (which electric motors have) movement will be smooth.

The price of a battery now will, in 10 years, (at current rates of price decreases, which have been consistent for years na) be only around 1/3 the current prices. The EV is 20% more expensive, which is still, for me, close enough. You have the reduced running costs and reduced maintenance. A class II ICE PUV is essentially a bus and good companies will do a full inspection/overhaul at around year 7 of its operating lifetime, and that's not cheap to do. In 20 years of use that's gonna be around 3 times that you do that.

Prospective buyers will do their research and comparison at a deeper level but the proposition of this Filipino made EV PUV is worth considering even if it may not be a clear winner at first glance.

Lets do our research at a deeper level as you suggested. So how much will it cost additional to build your own private charging station using a 3 phase electrical system which would require you to buy a 3 phase transformer (how many KVAs) and substation as most of our outlets are 1 phase only with limited capacity not to mention the extra manpower to charge, disconnect and reconnect the batteries, safeguard and maintain the facility? Does your P2.875M include the additional batteries needed for swapping?

Batteries performance or range are dependent on load, weight, temperature, driving habits, aircon usage, traffic and road conditions especially uphill climbs. So if your EV suddenly experiences low battery and loses power on the road, what about the towing and manpower costs, downtime and lost revenue?

How about the fire hazards of EVs? What about the spare parts, are they available in the provinces or is your market Metro Manila only? How much will they cost considering low volume sales? Will local automotive dealers even consider to stock them? Will the unavailability of parts exempt the buyer from paying the monthly amortization since its not their fault? Or if the EV encounters problems or issues or God forbid, an accident, will the local mechanic be able to service the vehicle or will we wait for your representative at added expenses otherwise the warranty will be void. So while waiting, no revenues or fares collected while we are expected to pay tens of thousands for amortization monthly for 7 years.

Businessmen, coops, operators will think hard many times whether buying this EV is a sound business decision and bring convenience and profits or will just drag them to misery, unforeseen problems and lost money or worse bankruptcy. Selling or disposing them is not even an option as used EVs have the worst resale values.

You can visit and inquire from the Jeepney X website for like 90% of your concerns. I'm not an agent of theirs to answer these extremely technical concerns. Upon checking (did you include this in your research?), their website has sections for battery supply (I assume charging solutions are included in this), aftersales, parts supply, etc. No one starts a business like this (very capital-intensive) without considering those issues for their customers.

Your concern about EV battery tech safety is something you can find a lot about online yourself. Entire fleets of buses abroad are already EVs (not a recent development). In terms of maintenance and servicing, if you have a BYD dealer in your area then they can service this bus. They service any brand EV. That or get your mechanic trained on electric motors and wiring (much simpler than IC Engines). And no, they don't need to train for the batteries. Aside from checking battery health, you don't really mess with the battery.

And when talking about resale value, fleet operators' usual intentions are to use their vehicles until they die. There's a reason why it's a bad idea to buy secondhand any vehicle na ginamit pamasada. Kahit Toyota binibenta sayo pero if former taxi then second guess mo yung value nyan.

The argument for EV buses has been answered a long time ago already. I can appreciate your concern for businesses but the conditions for EV buses being competitive aren't as difficult as you are portraying.

To be fair, checked their website and you tube channel and there is hardly anything there, almost no clickable links and nothing mentioned or details on 95% of the issues or concerns raised, just a shell of a website. I noticed though that the picture of the EV unit has chinese characters lit on its forehead, so this is most likely made in China as well.

It's unfortunate that they haven't built out that section of their website more. At least they are advertising those services and they seem to have a lot of contact options. It wouldn't surprise me if most - if not all - their parts are from China. Probably just assembled here to avoid extra taxes. They do offer services like EV conversion of ICE vehicles, so it seems that their personnel have the know-how to build/assemble/work on EVs.

Traditional rust bucket jeepneys be like: 👀