Prosjektet

“Gerweiss Motors, Corporation” is a duly registered corporation under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 15, 2011. It is located in the island of Boracay and in the rural area of Malay, Aklan. It is a family owned business, founded and managed by Sean Gerard Villoria, married to Edelweiss. The name ‘Gerweiss’ is a combination of the couple’s names. The business is engaged in customizing, manufacturing, designing, and selling of electric vehicle or also called as ‘e-trikes’. The movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ touched the heart of Gerard and Edelweiss, where their idea came out to create something that would help the environment. In November 2008, Gerard manufactured his first e-trike which is still in used in Taguig City, Manila and was used in the current APEC Summit. Its full operations full blasted in 2011, where around 300 e-trikes was manufactured and distributed in Boracay Island, and some cities in Manila, like in Mandaluyong. E-trike is a battery operated car that are maintained and monitored by Gerweiss Motors, Corporation and its sister company Gerweiss Station – where batteries are charged. Batteries are not sold, instead, operators leases it for a daily fee. It aims to lessen the noise and air pollution in protecting the environment and to increase the driver-operators income. 

It has five regular and 24 part-time workers, given with a competitive salary. They are targeting to hire more unskilled workers, or drop-outs from school, at the same time. They also conduct a program about financial literacy and introduce savings to their drivers and operators. Currently, Gerweiss Motors, Corp. is in partnership with the local government of Malay, Aklan for more e-trike projects. Their next step is to build a solar-powered charging station to create a completely eco-friendly operation.

Lendahand and its local partner NPFC, will provide a fixed asset loan to Gerweiss Motors, Corporation that will be used to produce an additional of 14 units of e-trikes and to acquire one unit of power transformer.