MANILA, Philippines — As part of its push to develop the country’s electric vehicle (EV) industry, the government is eyeing to provide subsidies to drivers of electric public utility vehicles as part of the proposed EV incentives strategy (EVIS), an official of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.
In an interview with The STAR, Trade Undersecretary for Competitiveness and Innovation Group Rafaelita Aldaba said they are still in the process of crafting the EVIS.
“In terms of the framework it’s somewhat similar to the CARS (Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy) program,” Aldaba said.
“But currently, we’re working on the incentives for public transportation like for example e-jeepneys, e-buses, e-trikes, we will give those incentives not just at the manufacturing side, but I think a new component that we are adding is the subsidy to be provided to the drivers of these vehicles,” Aldaba added.
Under Republic Act 11697 or the EV Industry Development Act (EVIDA), the DTI’s attached agency, the Board of Investments, is mandated to come up with an EVIS similar to the CARS program, which shall provide fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to reduce the production cost gap between EVs and traditional vehicles and achieve local EV production targets by 2030.
Aldaba said they are finalizing and reviewing the figures involved in the plan to ensure that the projections are right.
“We’re hoping that we can present it to the agencies soon. It’s just that some of the numbers and figures are still being finalized and reviewed to ensure that our projections are right,” Aldaba said, adding that new projections for the industry need to be made to account for changes brought by the pandemic.
She noted that an executive order from President Marcos would be needed to implement the EVIS once crafted.
“Of course it would require an executive order so we need to present it to the President, the Cabinet and then of course, we would like to present it as well as to the FIRB (Fiscal Incentives Review Board),” Aldaba said.
The EVIDA provides a national policy framework to develop the country’s EV industry.
The law seeks to promote innovation in clean energy and sustainable transportation, while pushing for the development of a sunrise industry in the country and generating jobs.
It aims to set clear policy directions in raising EV awareness, boosting local demand for EVs to encourage investments in production, and in building EV charging infrastructure.
EV sales in the country already exceeded sales in the entire 2022 as more Filipinos made the switch to electric, according to the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP).
Based on data from the EVAP, EV sales from January to March reached 2,536 units, a nearly 500-percent increase from the 426 EV units sold in 2022.
Of the first quarter EV sales, 452 units were sold in January, 760 units in February, and 1374 units in March.
EVAP attributed the growing EV adoption to the implementation of the EVIDA, which lapsed to become a law in April 2022 and enacted in May 2022 (with implementing rules and regulations taking effect in September 2022).
EVIDA incentivizes EV adoption nationwide–through allocating dedicated parking slots in establishments, assigning green routes across cities and municipalities, and exempting the vehicles from traffic coding schemes, among other perks. Public and private sectors have also been working to make charging stations more conveniently accessible to EV owners.
“Implementation remains a big challenge as it involves extensive output and promotion,” EVAP president Edmund Araga said earlier.