Gov’t targets EV conversion of 5.8-M PUVs

With viable policy support and incentive mechanisms, the Philippine government is targeting to convert roughly 5.8 million public transport system into electric vehicles (EVs), including jeepneys, buses, tricycles and trucks.

This is the propulsive force of a policy being pushed by a legislative measure that Senate Committee on Energy Chairman Sherwin T. Gatchalian will be filing at the upper chamber.

The lawmaker qualified that electric mobility is relatively very marginal in the Philippines; while the rest of Asian neighbors and the world are now advancing in this technology innovation domain.

Of the public vehicles targeted for electrification, buses could account for 27, 842 fleets; 4,488,677 motorcycles and tricycles; 41,316 trailers; and 364, 569 trucks plus the multitudes of jeepneys plying various thoroughfares of the country.

E-mobility solutions could also be an option for the country’s 914,014 cars as well as the 2,244,661 utility vehicles and public utility vehicles.

“The technology is around us already – EVs are used in many, many countries. There are only 140 plus e-vehicles in our country out of the 8.0 million fossil fuel-fed vehicles. EV adoption is very slow; and one of the missing links is really the rollout of charging stations,” Gatchalian stressed.

Thus in the measure that he is advancing in the Senate, he will be pushing for incentives in the manufacture as well as operations of EV infrastructure system in the country.

One key feature of the legislation is prescribing a certain percentage of EV charging slots or the “open access scheme for EVs” in key establishments, like commercial centers and malls, hotels and condominium buildings; and to make it mandatory also in government buildings.

“What we want to do is incentivize the whole ecosystem – the incentives under the tax reform is only for hybrid and electric vehicles, there’s none for charging stations,” the lawmaker said. (MMV)