Government mulls subsidies for EV production…

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is proposing subsidies for the production and purchase of electric vehicles (EV) to help push the development of the industry.

Trade Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba said the agency is looking to revise the production target of EVs by 2030.

During the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc.’s webinar on the EVs and Charging Stations Act Tuesday, Aldaba said the subsidies form part of the EV incentives strategy being pushed by the DTI to be included in Senate Bill 1382 which seeks to provide a framework for the development of the EV industry.

“We have an estimate of P30 billion fiscal support to manufacturers of PUVs (public utility vehicles), buses, trucks, and passenger cars, battery, auto electronics and charging stations,” she said.

For two-wheelers and three-wheelers, she said the DTI is looking at providing incentives in the form of income tax holidays.

“We’re also proposing an initial estimate of P53 billion as fiscal support for buyers of e-jeepneys, motorcycles and e-trikes,” she said.

In providing incentives to the manufacture and purchase of EVs, she said the aim is to have time-bound, targeted, performance-based and transparent fiscal and non-fiscal support to attract firms engaged in EVs, parts, batteries, charging stations and in establishment of testing facilities to the country.

Based on DTI estimates, she said the country is expected to have a total vehicle stock of 32 million units by 2030. Of this number, 6.6 million units would be EVs, with 3.2 million units to be manufactured locally.

Last year, the country’s total vehicle stock was 12.6 million units.

As the estimates for 2030 were made before the COVID-19 outbreak, Aldaba said there is a need to make adjustments.

“All those estimates we’ve presented would need to be adjusted somewhat, taking all these business sentiments, consumer confidence into account,” she said.

As the government is working on bringing back both business and consumer confidence, she said it also continues to look at how to speed up implementation of the strategy to push EV development.

She said other countries have long been implementing policies for the development of the EV sector and even with the pandemic, these countries continue to invest heavily in EVs and public transit as a way to repair the economic damage caused by the crisis and get their citizens back to work.

In the case of the Philippines, she said it is necessary to take into account opportunities in new technologies and business models in planning for economic recovery.

“We want the Philippines to prepare and not to miss these future opportunities,” she said.