Op-Ed: E-Trike Safety Is Real — But the Failure Runs Deeper than the Vehicles

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In my previous articles, be it reportage or opinion, I seemed to have taken the side of complete opposition. A motoring journalist friend pointed out how the real issue is safety. I partly agreed with him but argued that if we look at road safety in other countries it is a much longer process than just banning vehicles.

I emphasized that safety concerns surrounding electric tricycles and e-bikes in Philippine cities are real.

Anyone who has spent time driving, commuting, or even observing traffic from a bus window in Metro Manila (or Metro Cebu, like Larry Evans has) has seen it firsthand. Poor lane discipline, unpredictable maneuvers, vehicles entering high-speed roads without clear signaling, and riders who appear unfamiliar with basic road rules are not rare.

But focusing on rider behavior alone misses the deeper problem. The safety issue around e-trikes is not simply about reckless driving or “undisciplined” users. It is the cumulative result of regulatory gaps, weak product standards enforcement, fragmented public education, and the absence of a long-term vision for electric mobility.

In short, what looks like a road safety problem is actually a governance problem.

Uncontrolled entry before regulation caught up

The mass arrival of e-bikes and e-trikes in the Philippines did not follow a coordinated national plan. Imports surged rapidly, driven by low-cost manufacturing abroad and strong local demand for affordable mobility. Regulation, however, lagged behind adoption.

At the center of this gap are overlapping mandates among the Department of Transportation (Department of Transportation), the Department of Trade and Industry (Department of Trade and Industry), and the Land Transportation Office (Land Transportation Office).

The DTI is responsible for product standards, import regulation, and consumer protection. The DoTR sets transport policy and safety frameworks. The LTO handles registration, classification, and enforcement. In theory, this division should have ensured that electric trikes entering the market met minimum technical and safety standards before being allowed on public roads.

In practice, large volumes of e-trikes entered the country before clear classifications, performance limits, or design requirements were fully enforced. Questions that should have been settled early were left unanswered. Should all e-trikes require registration? Which units needed an Import Commodity Clearance? What technical thresholds defined an e-trike versus an electric motorcycle? These ambiguities created a regulatory vacuum that importers, sellers, and buyers navigated on their own.

By the time clearer rules emerged, hundreds of thousands of vehicles were already in daily use.

Product standards were treated as secondary

From a product safety perspective, the situation is equally uneven. Many e-trikes on Philippine roads lack basic features that are standard in other vehicle classes. Side mirrors are often missing or poorly positioned. Lighting systems vary widely in brightness and reliability. Battery enclosures differ in quality, with some units showing minimal protection against heat, water ingress, or impact.

The DTI’s product standards framework, including requirements for Import Commodity Clearance and compliance labeling, exists on paper. But enforcement has been inconsistent, particularly for low-cost imports sold through informal channels. As a result, vehicles with vastly different build quality and safety characteristics share the same roads.

This matters because vehicle design shapes behavior. Poor visibility encourages unsafe merging. Weak braking systems lengthen stopping distances. Inadequate battery protection raises fire risks in dense urban settings. When standards are loose or unevenly enforced, road safety becomes dependent on individual caution rather than system design.

Education was never scaled with adoption

Road education is another missing layer. Many e-trike drivers come from informal transport backgrounds or are first-time vehicle operators. Formal training programs, licensing pathways, and clear operating rules were not scaled alongside the rapid growth of the sector.

The result is a mismatch. Drivers are expected to navigate complex, car-dominated road environments without the same level of training required of other motor vehicle operators. This is not unique to e-trikes, but the issue is amplified because these vehicles often operate at lower speeds and with limited protective features.

Observers often describe this as a “discipline problem.” In reality, it is an education problem compounded by regulatory ambiguity. When rules are unclear, enforcement is inconsistent, and training is optional, unsafe behavior becomes systemic rather than exceptional.

The absence of a national e-mobility vision

Underlying all of this is a larger issue: the Philippines never articulated a clear, early vision for electric mobility at the light-vehicle level.

Policy discussions around EVs have largely focused on cars, buses, and charging infrastructure, often modeled on developed-market transitions. Light electric vehicles — despite being the most accessible, affordable, and widely adopted EVs in the country — were treated as peripheral or temporary.

Without a vision, planning became reactive. Roads were not redesigned to accommodate mixed speeds. Vehicle classes were defined after deployment rather than before. Enforcement arrived without transition. Safety was addressed through restriction rather than system improvement.

Other countries that successfully integrated light electric vehicles followed a different path. They defined technical standards early, invested in protected or shared lanes, trained riders, and gradually enforced rules once alternatives existed. The Philippine approach inverted this sequence.

Safety requires systems, not shortcuts

The current debate around e-trike safety often centers on whether these vehicles belong on major roads. That question, while important, is incomplete. The more fundamental issue is whether institutions prepared the system to absorb a new mode of mobility at all.

E-trikes did not fail the road. The road system, regulatory framework, and policy vision failed to evolve in time.

If safety is truly the goal, the solution will not come from bans alone. It will come from coordinated standards between the DoTR, DTI, and LTO, from enforced product requirements, from rider education scaled to actual usage, and from a national vision that treats light electric mobility as a permanent part of the transport ecosystem rather than a temporary disruption.

Until then, safety will remain a concern — not because e-trikes exist, but because the system around them never caught up.