The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) is targeting to have a million EVs plying local roads by 2030, scaling up by more than three times the original goal in its roadmap of 300,000 units in the same year.
Edmund Araga, EVAP president, in a press conference, said more people are now inclined on using EVs, be they two wheels, three wheels orfour wheels, for private use or public transportation.
Araga said EVAP is pushing for the immediate passage of the Electric Vehicles and Charging Stations Act which will lay the framework to the shift to more environment-friendly mobility.
Patrick Aquino, director at the Department of Energy said the issuance this month or in August of a circular on EV charging stations which would provide incentives to investors would address the infrastructure requirements that would in turn encourage EV adoption.
Araga said the issue of affordability can be addressed by lowering the cost of acquisition and more financing access.
He said subsidies for fleet acquisition under the Philippine Utility Vehicle Modernization have been raised to P160,000 but only a few have availed of the program.
Araga encouraged local government units to tap into the 3,000 e-trike program funded by the Asian Development Bank for community and public transportation.
Araga said EVAP also sees the potential of EVs in logistics.
DOE said 12,965 EVs were registered last year mostly electric tricycles (e-trikes) and two-wheeled vehicles.
There are 136 charging stations in the country.
“We need to step up our efforts to achieve our goals for rapid EV deployment, and to do this, government and private sectors need to collectively reaffirm their commitment to do so,” said Araga.
EVAP will host the 9th Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit (PEVS) on August 26 to 27, 2021 via the online platform Zoom with the theme ‘Accelerating the Switch to Electro-Mobility in the Philippines.” Irma Isip
