Philippines EV Ferry Has Moved Thousands of Passengers Since Launch

The Philippines has put its first locally built electric passenger ferry into regular service on the Pasig River in Metro Manila. The boat, called M/B Dalaray, was designed and built by engineers at the University of the Philippines Diliman with government funding, launched in October 2025, and by March 2026 was running scheduled trips between the Guadalupe and Escolta ferry stations six days a week. It's a 43-foot aluminum catamaran that carries up to 40 passengers, powered by a 160-kilowatt-hour battery and two electric motors, with a range of about 28 miles and a two- to three-hour charging time. Small solar panels help run lighting and air conditioning but aren't the main power source.

This is mostly a story about public transit and clean-energy policy abroad, not something that changes what's available to homeowners. But the economics are worth noting: project organizers reported energy costs of roughly 80 cents a mile for the electric ferry, versus $2.25 to $2.40 a mile for a comparable diesel boat — the same kind of operating-cost gap that makes electric heat pumps and electric vehicles cheaper to run than their fossil-fuel counterparts, even when upfront costs are higher.

The bigger question now is whether the design can be scaled up affordably, since a one-off prototype can absorb costs a production fleet couldn't. Officials plan to track real-world data — electricity use per trip, charging needs, maintenance, and battery wear — to see if the approach could expand to other routes across the Philippines' many island and coastal communities.