The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) has asked the Tariff Commission (TC) to exclude from the planned tariff elimination hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) , saying these are internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles that do not contribute to the energy source diversification aim of the move.
In a position paper, EVAP said the zero duty should be limited to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and full electric vehicles (EV).
EVAP also proposes the exclusion of electric-jeepneys and electric-tricycles in the tariff exemption so as not to affect the development and growth of the local e-jeepney and e-tricycle industry.
EVAP said HEVs are internal combustion engine or conventional vehicles as they source their power solely from petroleum and charging is done via its internal combustion engine.
According to EVAP, HEVs are not classified as Zero Emission Vehicles unlike PHEVs thus
are treated differently.
” Providing similar incentives to HEVs will lead to significantly lower prices
than PHEVs and EVs and eat up the market and slow down the adoption of PHEVs and EVs,” said Edmund Araga, EVAP president, adding unlike
PHEVS and EVs, batteries of HEVs are smaller thus they are cheaper and
approach the cost of pure ICE vehicles.
Arraga also noted most countries provide incentives only to PHEVs and EVs and exclude HEVs as they are considered as conventional vehicles and are mostly competitive price wise.
As it is, HEVs enjoy 50 percent excise tax exemption while PHEVs and EVs are 100-percent exempt.
EVAP’s proposal will effectively exclude the Toyota and Lexus, which were the first to introduce in the Philippines electrified vehicles using HEV technology and which have gained traction in sales locally.
Toyota’s RAV 4 HEV imported from Japan and some Lexus models such as those with 3-liter engines are still pegged with 30 percent tariff.
Most-favored nation tariff is at 30 percent.
EVAP also proposes the creation of new tariff codes for some items instead of lumping them in existing codes to avoid confusion in implementation.
The group said this is mostly true for the key electrical components of electric vehicles including battery cells, packs and modules, traction motors and motor controllers.
“EVAP expresses its appreciation for the initiative to remove tariff for electric vehicles for some years. This would greatly help in boosting electric vehicle adoption in the country and create the mass, needed to facilitate investments on charging network and also hopefully eventually attract investors on their manufacturing locally,” Araga said. – Irma Isip
