Support The Negros ev Rally 2013 Philippines
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Image By Domenick Yoney used without permission
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Next year, Negros Island could be home to the first biennial electric vehicle road rally in Asia (if you exclude the famous World Solar Challenge in Australia). Why Negros? Because all of its power comes from renewable sources and is virtually free.
Negros derives its electricity from geothermal sources, deep beneath its rainforested interior. Thanks to initiatives of the previous administration, in the funding of modern road infrastructure, Negros also has some of the most underutilized roads in the Philippines. This unique combination of almost free electricity and underutilized roads has inadvertently created the ideal conditions and location for the World’s first electric vehicle road rally. And in my opinion there are few better places to showcase environmentally friendly road vehicles than on an island where there is no pollution from coal, oil or gas powered electricity generating plants.
Electric cars and motorcycles have come to the fore in recent years, as the power to weight ratio has been improved in favor of long distance driving between recharges and elegant styling of the bodywork to make the cars and motorcycles look and feel like their internal combustion engine powered predecessors.
You can now purchase an electric vehicle for almost the same cost as one of its internal combustion engine powered predecessors. Motorcycles are still a bit of a price challenge but only because volumes are still relatively low. When the numbers increase the costs will decrease. But this will not stop the manufacturers coming to display their wares. For styling and performance you will find it hard to beat the 21st century electric car. Which ever way you look at it, running an electric vehicle is incredibly inexpensive compared to gas or diesel.
Add to this the virtually inexhaustible supply of almost free electricity on Negros Island and you have to wonder why nobody has thought of it before.
As a result of the electric vehicle road rally – dubbed the “Negros ev Rally” – Negros will no doubt become the Asian center for electric powered vehicles and it is imagined that most local government and private enterprises will be encouraged to switch to zero-pollution vehicles over the decade that follows.
The spillover benefits for tourism are obvious. Some tourists will come because they want to see the future in action. Some tourists will come because the cleaner air and the low noise will bring the indigenous fauna closer to their cameras. Some tourists will come because they will just want to say that they have witnessed the pinnacle of eco-tourism, where every tourist bus, car and motorcycle is powered by clean, renewable energy direct from Mother Nature’s heart. World leaders and their entourages will come to be seen to be part of the eco-revolution and to make pronouncements for similar projects in their home countries.
Negros will be the become a beacon of hope in a World where all too often the quick-profit initiative degrades biodiversity and along with it, humanity.
In the Negros ev Rally will be found the springboard for the future development of even more efficient electric vehicles and support technologies.
Support the Negros ev Rally and make the island of Negros a global symbol of hope and a powerhouse of dreams for a future where our children’s children can breath clean air forever.
For more information email me at philippines@getwet-asia.com
the image above was taken by Domenick Yoney at the Grand Prix de Pau 2012 and features racing cars built around a Siemens chassis during the races, hopefully Domenick will be present in Negros