Are SEA’s deliveries about to get greener? These logistics startups think so

Before the pandemic, seeing an electric vehicle (EV) on the roads of some Southeast Asian countries would have been nearly impossible. By 2024, it’s become an ordinary sight.

From Manila to Jakarta, a number of logistics startups are driving the mainstream adoption of electric vehicles.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Mober, a logistics firm based in the Philippines is one of them. The startup began in 2015 as an on-demand delivery service for large items with fleets ranging from delivery vans to six-wheeler trucks.

It proved too expensive to compete with similar companies in the market. “We didn’t have the war chest to compete,” Dennis Ng, founder and CEO of Mober, tells Tech in Asia.

So by 2017, he transformed the business into a third-party logistics provider for shops located in malls. It clicked.

In 2022, the company reached net profitability for the first time. So for a company that has had many U-turns, why pivot to adopt EVs now?

“I always listen to my clients,” Ng says. “When one of them asked if I offered deliveries through an EV, I said yes, I could. So in 2021, I bought two EV units.” It certainly helped that the client asking was the multinational furniture maker Ikea.

Mober CEO Dennis Ng / Photo credit: Mober

Ever since it became evident that the world had to stay within the 1.5 degree Celsius climate threshold, governments and corporations alike have taken their part in ensuring that the planet does not exceed that limit.

Multinational companies, in particular, have pledged to achieve net-zero emissions in their operations. This means they would either drop or limit activities that emit greenhouse gasses or counterbalance the activities that do so through natural means or through carbon capture technologies.

So for Ng, whose clients include the Philippine offices of Ikea, Nestle, and other multinational firms that have pledged to net-zero operations by 2050, a bet on EVs is not rocket science.

“I’m giving Mober just a two- to three-years window of when it can enjoy itself as the only logistics company that offers deliveries through EVs,” Ng says. “After that, I expect most logistics companies to make the switch.”

Cutting emissions and costs

Charging challenge

Cost barriers

EV push by SEA countries