The government is readying P83 billion in subsidies to the electric vehicle (EV) industry as it aims to hit 6.6 million units of EVs in its vehicle stock in 10 years.
Rafaelita Aldaba, undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, at an online forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines said while the volume target is set to be refined to take into account the economic slowdown due to the new coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the government has prepared an EV incentive strategy that would lower the acquisition cost and stimulate investments for manufacturing EVs.
Aldaba said the strategy calls for a P30-billion fiscal support to manufacturers of EVs, batteries, sub-electronics and charging stations.
The types of EVs prioritized are public utility vehicles (PUVs) buses, trucks, two- and three-wheelers and passenger cars,
A bigger consumption subsidy of P53 billion for those who buy e-jeepneys, motorcycles and tricycles.
Aldaba said the incentives will narrow the cost gap between EVs and traditional motor vehicles and make Filipinos shift to EVs.
Today, EVs in the Philippines are twice the cost of traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.
“The objective is to provide time bound targeted performance-based fiscal and non-fiscal support in order to attract EV and EV parts particularly electronic parts and other strategic components batteries, charging stations, and the establishment of testing facilities in terms of the production support,” Aldaba said.
The strategy ties in with the provisions of Senate Bill 1382 or the Electric Vehicle Bill of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.
Aldaba estimates that by 2030, 6.6 million or 21 percent of the 32-million unit vehicle stock will be EVs, considering cost reduction due to the incentives.
Of that, 3.2 million units or 49 percent will be manufactured locally Of the 6.6 million EV stocks, PUVs will have 72,250 units , buses 24,500; trucks, 70,000; UVs other than PUVs, 300,000; two-wheelers, 5.5 million; three-wheelers, 300,000 and; passenger cars, 300,000.
Citing a study of Frost & Sullivan, Aldaba said 46 percent of Filipinos are eager to buy EVs but cited tax waiver, availability of charging stations would be a big factor for the shift.
Edmund Araga, president of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines said in the same forum the Philippines lags behind Asean in EV adoption.
Araga said as of 2019, the Philippines only had 3,500 e-trikes, 252 e-jeepneys, more than a thousand two-wheelers and 64 e-cars.
Araga cited the need to have the right policies and incentives for EVs to get a bigger share in the automotive market.
He said incentives should include tariff and tax exemption while policies could come in the form of other demand generation measures like mandating a portion of corporate fleet, public transportation and government vehicles to EVs and other benefits like free toll, exemption from numbering coding, priority in parking and reduced registration fee.
As an overall strategy, Araga also pushes for an EV program where locally sourced parts in the manufacture of electric PUVs like jeeps and buses would get incentives.(I.Isip)
