MANILA, Philippines — Motorcycle manufacturer Honda Philippines Inc. may consider producing electric motorcycles locally if the government will provide incentives, according to a company official.
Honda Philippines president Sayaka Arai told reporters that while the company has local manufacturing operations, it has opted to import electric motorcycle EM1 e: from China as investing in local production will cost more than importation.
“However if government laws and regulations change for the good, for the investment for the local production, we want to consider producing this kind of electric models for our domestic market,” she said.
In other countries like Indonesia, she said the government provides incentives for electric vehicles that meet the required local content production.
In the Philippines, the government has brought down the import tariff on electric vehicles including e-motorcycles to zero until 2028 to encourage the adoption of environment-friendly transportation.
While Honda Philippines welcomes this move to expand the EV market, she said the company wants the government to consider incentives to encourage local production of these vehicles.
“For the future, we like to (ask) the government side, please consider incentives for the domestic manufacturer,” she said.
Honda Philippines is producing motorcycle models like the Click 125, BeAT and XRM at its plant in Batangas.
While the company caters primarily to the local market, it exports the XRM to New Zealand to serve those in the agriculture sector.
Arai said the company still sees room to grow the output of the Batangas facility, which produces more than 750,000 units in a year.
She also said the company expects its motorcycle sales to grow this year and reach more than 850,000 units, citing favorable economic conditions.
For next year, Honda Philippines is hopeful that their sales would reach one million units.
Last year, Honda Philippines sold 820,000 motorcycles.
“We, at Honda, really have a big expectation for the Philippines because as you know well, the population is increasing. Then the economic level is really more stable than before,” Arai said, noting that the economy posted growth above six percent and inflation has eased from the previous year.
“So that means that market might still be growing…So we will continuously make our investment for the motorcycle market,” she said.
She also said the company will consider expanding its offerings to attract other customers not only for the electric motorcycles, but also for the gasoline-powered bikes.