Tojo Motors Corporation is a proudly 100% Filipino-owned firm that espouses steward leadership by creating an ecosystem around an electric vehicle transportation platform in the Philippines. Our mission is to serve both the public and private stakeholders and provide an environmentally and socially sustainable solution for the transportation industry, specifically the modernisation of the iconic Filipino jeepneys.

The story of Tojo Motors Corporation began in 2013 with Ralph Legaspi, our Founder and CEO, on vacation in the idyllic tropical beaches of Boracay. Ralph observed a problem with the noisy and volatile organic compound emissions of tricycles that plied the streets. As a car enthusiast, he sought to create a more environmentally-friendly transportation vehicle to replace these tricycles which he felt were ruining the natural beauty of Boracay. And thus, he founded Tojo Motors, the first local manufacturer of electric vehicles, and built it from the ground up with his own personal capital. Till date, Ralph, our Board of Directors, and Advisory Board have consciously focused on our primary purpose of providing and environmentally sound and sustainable solution to the antiquated public transport system in the Philippines.

Modernising jeepneys for social & environmental impact

The passage of the Philippine EV Bill on April 15, 2022 provided Tojo Motors an invaluable opportunity to create and develop Electric Vehicle Jeepneys or E-Jeepneys to replace over 800,000 existing traditional jeepneys nationwide.

As for the impact to our nation, our E-Jeepneys present an opportunity to lessen the significant dependence on fossil fuel. The modernisation of jeepneys have the potential to drastically improve air quality and noise pollution. In addition, repairs and maintenance of these vehicles eliminate the use of oils and chemicals.

Most importantly, we are able to provide more sustainable employment to our Filipino workers as we scale up our production. For our E-jeepney drivers, we are able to provide a higher living wage as compared to using traditional jeepneys. Moreover, our vehicles are substantially easier to drive and are more comfortable.

Finally, our E-Jeepneys provide a much better and more pleasant experience, specifically, a safer, smoother, cleaner, noise-free, spacious, and convenient ride.

Integrating technology to address needs on the ground

We continuously invest in research and development to keep up with technology and to create Filipino sustainable innovation in the transportation industry. We have designed and built our E-Jeepneys in-house to include a GPS system, auto fare collection system, CCTV cameras, video entertainment system with artificial intelligence advertising capability, lithium-ion battery, and AC motors technology.

We are the only truly local manufacturer of electric vehicles in the Philippines. Our E-jeepneys cater to the local conditions of the roads and environment. Our business model relies on battery swapping instead of charging. Moreover, our after-sale service technology can extend the battery life of our vehicles as compared to our competitor’s imports.

We have been recognised by the Department of Science and Technology and the United Nations under UNIDO, UNDP, and UN Habitat as one of the local innovators in the Philippines. We were recently conferred the E-Mobility Award from the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines during the 11th Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit.

Spearheading the transition to electric vehicles

The future is extremely bright for us. In the recent 11th Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit 2023, the conclusion arrived was that there was no turning back from the transition to electric vehicles in the Philippines. It was predicted that by 2030 over 6 million vehicles would use an electric platform in our country.

The immediate plan is for us to tap this once in a generation opportunity and to scale up our production under its current factory base. We plan to expand our manufacture to other types of vehicles including e-tricycles, e-buses, e-motorcycles, e-trucks, and eventually e-cars.

While our core business is the manufacture of electric vehicles in the Philippines, we plan to expand our business portfolio to include battery swapping, leasing, cashless payment system, and advertising. Next year, we plan to set up a Leasing Facility for our customers thereby facilitating financing options. Furthermore, we will be setting up a battery manufacturing company to include other battery applications and innovations.

We plan to launch a pilot project early next year in General Santos City, Mindanao wherein the E-Jeepney program is integrated into an ecosystem within a 2-hectare property to include solar charged battery swapping stations, retail areas for livelihood projects for the families of the jeepney drivers, and housing projects for the drivers. This is a collaborative project between Tojo Motors, the local government unit, and the jeepney cooperatives.

For the long term, we plan to build a world class manufacturing facility and several assembly plants in strategic locations nationwide and thus employ more workers. Tojo Motors would also have global ambitions as we have received several enquiries from Ghana and Egypt to replicate this transportation ecosystem platform in their respective countries.