You’ve heard the news – American tech company Tesla is in talks with the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) for a potential joint-venture in battery tech. Why batteries? Well Tesla is one of the biggest innovators in battery technology because of necessity – their main products are their electric cars, which require hi-quality, hi-tech batteries to function.

Read: Meralco Looking to Partner with Tesla for Battery Venture

While Tesla’s talks with Meralco is just for small storage needs, it’s not far-fetched to see the company’s products arriving in the PH in the future. Obviously we’ll be talking about their cars, but that’s not the only thing they can bring over here. Things like:

Force the goverment to have an actual plan for electric vehicle registration and use

For Tesla’s vehicles to be sold here, the government needs to have a framework in place to be able to register electric vehicles. Right now the LTO does not have a category for electric cars yet, though we’ve been told that someone managed to register one but had to pay massive taxes to get one registered. Obviously that’s not ideal, since electric vehicles are the key to reducing our country’s carbon footprint (which is made worse by the horrible traffic in the metro). The biggest task that Meralco and Tesla face before they can realistically start selling EVs (electric vehicles) in the country is a clear, solid framework, complete with tax incentives (just like the US). We did have Senate Bill 2151 introduced by Senator Bam Aquino a few years back that languished in bicameral talks – maybe they can finally push legislators to come out with that bill?

Bring in the Powerwall

The Tesla Powerwall is a simple concept – it’s essentially a large battery pack for homes that is able to store power from renewable sources like solar panels efficiently for later use. But while the concept is simple, the product is anything but. It’s essentially a smart battery pack that’s way more efficient than normal lead acid batteries, and is smart enough to be programmed to start charging when power is the cheapest (or when the sun is able to give off the maximum amount of power) and then discharge when power is at its most expensive, or when everybody’s settling in for the night.

Read: Tesla announces Powerwall

Even if you don’t use renewable energy, the Powerwall is still useful since it can act act like a backup generator (without the polluty bits) in places that have spotty electric generation, since it uses state-of-the-art lithium ion batteries that power their cars. It doesn’t degrade like normal batteries do, and can be charged and discharged for hundreds, if not thousands of cycles without issues.

Make the Model 3 a common sight in our roads

Tesla is a company that’s known for their electric vehicles, and that’s exactly what we want when the company arrives here. But unlike other people who want to see the sleek-looking roadster or the even the S, we want to see the Model 3 in the country.

For people who don’t know, the Model 3 is Tesla’s most affordable electric vehicle to date. With an expected price of $35,000 (or around 1.62 million) it’s an electric vehicle for the masses. It has an estimated range of 215 miles or around 346 km, can go 0 to 60mph in under 60 seconds and is probably the safest car you’ll ever ride in. Add to that the fact that Tesla’s interiors are made for tech-heads, and you can see why we want this car to show up on our roads. While the expected price is a bit high for a normal sedan, IF Meralco manages to lobby the goverment properly (and a new law is passed that gives EVs tax cuts) then the Model 3 may just become a common sight on our roads.

Here’s to hoping.