The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) sees electric vehicle (EV) sales will comprise less than 5 percent of total industry sales this year.
Campi president Rommel Gutierrez told reporters on Monday EVs will account for 4 percent of the total industry sales target of 500,000 units in 2025 as the market adapts to more electric vehicles as new models and attractive prices attract more buyers.
As such electric vehicles (EVs) sales will track the overall industry sales growth of 6 percent in 2025.
Campi data showed its members which are engaged in the distribution of EVs sold 1,600 units in January 2025. These include 1,445 units of hybrid EV; 146 units of battery EV and 9 units of plug-in hybrid EV.
Toyota Motor Philippines Corp., which sells hybrid Toyota and Lexus brands, dominated the EV market with sales of 1,256 units or 78 percent of the total. In January 2025.
Pure EVs account for 5 percent of total electrified vehicles, Gutierrez said.
BYD, which sells pure EVs, is not a member of Campi and has yet to release official sales numbers.
Gutierrez said BYD, Tesla, Subaru and Chinese brand Hongqi are applying for membership with Campi, which currently includes 24 companies.
Motorists have a strong tendency at this point to adopt EVs in passenger cars. China’s Foton is the lone distributor of electric commercial vehicles.
At this point, Campi does not see any company keen on going into EV assembly in the country. “Not in the near future because you need volume and a strong supplier base for EVs,” Gutierrez said.
In February 2023, President Marcos Jr. signed Executive Order 12, temporarily eliminating tariffs on pure EVs and their components for five years. In 2024, the privilege was extended to two and three-wheeled EVs, HEVs, and PHEVs.
The Department of Energy defines an EV as a vehicle with an electric motor rotating the wheels to propel the vehicle. These include BEVs, PHEVs and HEVs.
The DOE said BEVs are electrically propelled vehicles with a traction battery as its sole source of power. PHEVs run on rechargeable energy storage systems that can be charged from an external source of electricity, and HEVs run on both rechargeable batteries and carbon-based fuel.
