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First Gen Corp pilot-tests its first solar EV charging station

The charging station is part of the company’s ‘GreenWheels’ vehicle project.

Autodeal on Mar 24, 2022

Gas prices as we all know them are on the rise, however, one company wants to help transition the country into the Electric Vehicle(EV) age by pilot testing its solar EV charging station. First Gen Corp has recently announced that it is testing an integrated electric vehicle project with a solar-powered charging station.

It will be first used at the company’s Clean Energy Complex in Batangas City. The vehicle of choice for this pilot project was the Nissan LEAF, as it is one of the already known EVs in the world that is also locally available for sale in the Philippines. It also boasts a range of up to 311 on a single full charge. With that in mind, First Gen has developed its charging station to be “extremely fast”. The company has stated that it can power an EV battery to 80 percent in as fast as 40 minutes which is a great feat considering that it gets its power from the sun.

EVs do not spew CO2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere, and these vehicles’ increasing popularity now expands their role in reducing emissions from the transport sector.

Francis Giles Puno
First Gen President

He continues by stating that “by utilizing a solar-powered charging station, even the power used to charge the EVs becomes clean. This further optimizes and enhances the role of EVs in cutting down CO2 emissions and mitigating climate change.”

If the pilot testing proves to be successful in reducing emissions and providing a sustainable platform to charge EVs, then this project could be replicated in other sites. This will in turn make charging your EV much more convenient and will help incentivize the plug to get more of these kinds of vehicles.

As it stands EVs, especially cars and crossovers are still on the expensive side of the pricing spectrum. Filipino car buyers are still hesitant to get into the new technology as the charging infrastructure isn’t quite there yet, however, with projects like this solar charging station, more people could end up buying EVs soon. This will hold especially true if the gas prices continue to skyrocket in the next few months.