Cogs in the Wheel: Staying True to a Family Legacy

Anyone who lives in Mandaluyong would be familiar with the family name Guevara. The Domingo M. Guevara Street cuts across Mandaluyong to stand as a fitting testament and honor the legacy of the innovator, industrialist, visionary and the patriarch of the Guevara clan, Domingo M. Guevara, Sr.

Domingo Guevara started from humble beginnings as a radio repairman in the 1930s. Through hard work and his entrepreneurial flair, he became the first local distributor of USA-made RCA appliances, eventually founding Radiowealth, Inc. to serve as its manufacturing and distribution arm. Guevara made radios, and later on television sets and other appliances locally, and provided retail financing so that ordinary Filipinos could afford them. This was very much like what Henry Ford did with the Model T cars in the USA. And this started a Guevara tradition: make your products affordable and easily accessible to the greater number of the population.

A few years after, DMG became the local manufacturer of Volkswagen which included the iconic VW Beetle and the locally-designed Sakbayan and Trakbayan, the all Pinoy-made utility vehicles, bringing much pride to the Philippines.

Eventually, the DMG Group (Guevent) was formed to handle the family's various interests in many industries and businesses. But through all of these successes, the Guevaras never left their home base and headquarters in the heart of Mandaluyong city where it all started.

Today, the legacy of the old man Guevara is being upheld by his youngest son Ricardo Guevara or Ricky as he is fondly called by friends. He recently came back from the USA where he also put up a successful alloy wheel company. But this time, it was for good as he set up EVWealth, an electric tricycle company.

Ricky reveals that true to the Guevara legacy, he established EVWealth as a visionary company seeking not only to modernize Philippine public transport but also to uplift the lives of the lowly tricycle driver, starting of course in their hometown Mandaluyong.

“Taking a page from my father's book, I treaded the road less travelled— or in the case of ETrike, the road a few brave souls have treaded but even fewer have succeeded, if at all.

“Electric tricycles have been having sporadic introductions in various parts of the country since 2009, but none of them lasted long. They always had problems starting with the units themselves, the batteries, the technology, the operators or even just the local government,” Ricky Guevara said.

Enter the EVWealth ETrikeBayan

“Learning from my Dad, we had to make our ETrike affordable and easily accessible to the tricycle drivers. I even wanted something better: I want them to own the ETrikes, and not just be paying daily boundary,” said Ricky.

“Thus, EVWealth came into the scene with a complete mass transport solution package. The package starts with a high quality electric tricycle specifically designed for Philippine road conditions, a battery charging and swapping station for their lithium ion battery packs to address the range anxiety problem, a reliable after-sales service, and ends with the most critical aspect, which is retail financing,” he added.

He explains that another critical success factor is their close relationship with the local government which passed an ordinance banning the renewal of two-stroke tricycle registration.

“Fortunately for us, they can only be replaced with electric tricycles. This was a move that killed two birds with one stone.

“First, it implemented the Clean Air Act which makes two-stroke motorcycles illegal; and second, it introduced electric tricycles in the city for a greener commute,” Ricky said.

The result is a phenomenal success in Mandaluyong

Ricky is proud of the fact that EVWealth now has more than 120 EVWealth ETrikebayans plying the streets of Mandaluyong, the biggest ever single deployment of ETrikes in a community.

“Our program had the drivers doubling or even tripling their income because of the roomier ETrikebayan which can seat six passengers, as opposed to the traditional one which barely seats four passengers.

“And commuters prefer our ETrikebayans, which are more comfortable to ride in, and with no noise and no smoke to boot!” Ricky said.

But he will not stop with Mandaluyong since after a planned deployment of 1,000 ETrikebayans in Mandaluyong, EVWealth is looking at the nearby cities of Pasig, Manila, and Makati as the targets for next deployments.

“And eventually spread it all over the country. Our ETrike Program is more than just a business for us. It is actually a livelihood advocacy for the lowly tricycle driver.

“What drives us is the will to uplift the lives of the tricycle driver by giving him a more comfortable, healthy and profitable source of income, and the riding public, commuting in comfort.

“And that is why I feel that the program is succeeding and will continue to do so,” said Ricky.

(The author is the CEO of Filipino pioneer Jeep body and parts maker MD Juan Enterprises, of pioneer electric vehicle manufacturer PhUV Inc., and is the president of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines. To join EVAP, call 9307003 and look for Lani Labrador.)