I chuckle every time I hear someone ask “Kaya bang mag-Baguio niyan?” If the abundance of criminally underpowered classic Beetles littering the Pine City’s alleyways doesn’t clue you in as to how silly this question is, I don’t know what will. But for electric vehicles, this mimetic motoring milestone takes on a wholly different dimension. Becoming more a question of whether there is an extension cord long enough to reach from Manila to Benguet.
Even the BYD Atto 3’s quoted 480-kilometer range—over double the 225-kilometer trip distance—isn’t enough for some people. Which is why BYD Philippines decided to drive a convoy of eight Attos to Baguio City, with us along for the ride. So can an EV make it? Well, yes. No. Maybe. Obviously, it will get there, but it’s a wee bit more complicated to accomplish than with a gasoline car.
OTHER STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:
LTO set to release plastic driver’s license cards in April
Next-gen Nissan Navara shows itself for the first time
We start off from BYD Philippines in Bonifacio Global City, with eight Atto 3 crossovers, a Han sedan, a Tang SUV, and a Dolphin hatchback, dozens of motoring writers/vloggers/videographers, and two racing drivers—Louis and Georges Ramirez—to herd the ragged lot. A fair mix of driving abilities, power levels, prices, and battery loadouts. Still, even the diminutive Dolphin should be able to do this drive with ease.
Or it should, in perfect conditions. Eager to demonstrate ‘real-world’ economy, BYD has us driving out into rush-hour traffic, slogging south down EDSA to the Skyway Stage 3 entrance at Buendia. Driving straight up EDSA to Balintawak seems like less trouble. Sure, the detour saves us a dozen minutes in the end, but it’s a dozen kilometers longer and 256 pesos in toll more expensive.
As we crawl through traffic, the Atto’s dashboard begins to take on the semblance of a cybernetic whale, ogling us with AC vent eyes under the glaring sun. Those eyeball vents are near howling. Earlier this week, some provinces canceled classes for fear of students keeling over from the heat. No danger of that here, but every time I step out of the car my legs start sticking to my sweat-soaked pants.
With frequent stops to gather up the convoy, rotate drivers, and relieve bladders, this happens a lot. Kilowatts of electricity are burned keeping the cars cool as people shuffle in and out for bathroom breaks. With four dozen people in the convoy, that’s a lot of shuffling. This is a trip that should take under three hours with light traffic and an iron bladder. We have neither on hand.
With delays putting us far off schedule, convoy leader Georges Ramirez in the mighty Han has us doing triple-digit speeds to make up time. To keep the convoy coherent, we need to occasionally hot-foot it to stack up behind him. Not an optimum use case for EVs, as efficiency drops off drastically at high speed due to the lack of a dedicated overdrive.
Little surprise that we’ve used over 70% of our full charge by the time we hit the Shell station at the TPLEX junction at Rosario, La Union, a mere 225km from our starting point. The laggards at the back of the convoy have much more left, not having had to keep pace with the red-hot Han. As first car, we don’t have that luxury.
A few minutes at Shell’s new 180kW Level 3 chargers nets us an extra 10kW of charge, more than enough for the steep climb up to Baguio. Prices are even steeper, at 35 pesos per kilowatt, but you can save a bit with the slower Level 2 chargers. Or save even more by charging at home and not driving like a madman in the first place.
The meandering climb up often has enthusiasts waxing poetic about power-to-weight ratios and steering response, but the mundane reality is a slow uphill slog behind encumbered cargo haulers punctuated by odd bursts of overtaking. By the time we hit the outskirts of the city, the weather has finally cooled enough for us to roll down our windows. The familiar old buildings of Baguio feel small and shabby under the noonday sun, the grand edifice of SM Baguio looming over all as we thread our way through traffic towards Camp John Hay.
We make it to Forest Lodge with 26% battery remaining. Even without that last-minute recharge, we’d still have had 12%, enough for a tour around the city. But the cars have been blocked off for obligatory media photo and video sessions instead. Unfortunately, the skies have turned overcast. A dreary light washes over the commercial center across the road, a crumbling remnant of ’80’s nostalgia huddled behind shuttered storefronts and sad-looking tiangge stalls. A small cluster of trendy eateries and a row of EV chargers by the main gate prove a cheerier sight, but I find no inspiration in either. I defer my turn for the morrow.
As the sun sets, we leave our cars to charge at the hotel and take a pair of buses to dinner, to a nice little hacienda down the road that’s big on space but short on parking. A house once owned by the Lopezes, now available as an Airbnb, at a price that would make a decent down payment on a Dolphin. Enviable luxury, but not something I associate with the perennial Baguio experience. Here, we partake of wine, song, and cool night air. Not as cool as in years past, but a far cry from the sweltering nights of Manila.
Thankfully, I manage to wrangle the keys to a car after dinner, and after a brief nap, set out at three in the morning for a proper Baguio tour. Haunting lights pierce the mist as I drive by Teacher’s Camp. I glide down the road past the dark windows of the historic Casa Vallejo, by the garish LED-lit pineapple standing guard at the top of Session Road, past alleyways filled with old buildings and musty memories, and down to Burnham Park.
This is the Baguio I remember from many a night-time walkabout. The Atto 3 is perfect for this: Cool air, open windows, and the rolling hills of the city allow me to silently glide around for nearly an hour on only 2% of that big 60kW battery. The absence of the odor of unburnt gasoline fumes here is simply a bonus. I flit past vendors asleep at their stalls, bicycle rentals closing up for the night, and people walking to work in the cool pre-dawn hours. I stop at a local convenience store boasting eggs and everything else for a drink of something colder than the air.
I’m craving some hot balut, but I have to head back to pick up ex-TGP photographer Ian Magbanua for a drive out to Loakan Airport. An hour later, we catch the sunrise over the hills and an air-horn from a security guard shooing us away from the vacant runway. We make our way back past houses that seemed old when we were young. We make it back for breakfast having used less than 10% of the battery. The sun streaming through the windows bathes the hotel lobby in an ethereal, timeless light as we sink our teeth into heaping servings of crunchy bacon and succulent tortang talong.
Afterwards: some idle chatter, some car shuffling, a group photo, and we’re off for Manila. A Volkswagen ID.6 owner booked at the hotel asks if we are still using the hotel chargers, as he’s been waiting all morning. We tell him they are finally clear. Pro tip: When you drive an electric to Baguio, don’t do it at the same time as an 11-EV media convoy!
We take a long cut out to Asin Road for the drive down; past breathtaking vistas of house-lined hillsides, much like the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, only cleaner and crisper. The route itself is a treacherously, hilariously winding ribbon of concrete with a pair of lovely tunnels and more switchbacks than political parties prepping for a Philippine presidential campaign. The Atto 3 isn’t ideal for this kind of driving, but proves semi-unflappable, aside from the otherwise silent Chao Yang tires protesting feebly through the thick sound insulation.
This downhill plunge adds an extra 5% of charge to the batteries, which we fritter away on the drive back to TPLEX Junction, where we stop for lunch and some more charging. BYD is being ultra-cautious topping off this early, but given that it’s pay-day Friday, I don’t blame them. The rest of the drive is as you’d expect. NLEX Traffic. Bathroom break. More NLEX traffic. More bathroom breaks. Even more NLEX traffic. One last break before getting on the Skyway for the crawl through Manila. Honestly, if the Baguio-obsessed had to do this more than once a year, they’d fall out of love with the idea really quickly.
But the discomfort of the drive doesn’t take the shine off the Atto. The adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assist, though not the best ever, make the drive that little bit easier. The Atto isn’t the most sophisticated EV, but it’s faster and more economical than gasoline counterparts in this price range, with a quirky interior, a comfortable ride, and a stinking big bulletproof battery.
Despite the high heat, hectic pace, and heavy traffic, the one car that didn’t charge on the way back still had enough range for a lap around Taguig. Overall, we’ve used less than a thousand pesos of electricity per car to go over five hundred kilometers, despite doing everything wrong. If we’d left before sunrise and driven at a moderate pace—like sane people would—we could have almost made it there and back on half that. So yes, you can drive to Baguio without recharging. But no, you don’t really need to, not with the variety of fast chargers available in the city.
While I still view the Perennial Pine City Pilgrimage as purgatory on wheels, the EV experience makes it almost enjoyable. And the time spent charging for the trip back home gives you leave to go out for a walk, to go out and find the real Baguio City. Behind the Manila-sourced traffic, cafes, and malls still lie that old-world charm that makes the city a timeless experience. You just need to give yourself a chance to unplug, unwind, and soak it all in.
