Gov’t subsidies for buyers of e-vehicles sought

MANILA  -A local trade association is still hoping that the government will implement a 15- to 30-percent sales rebate policy for buyers of electric vehicles (EVs), citing that this will help bring down costs and entice more people to switch to these environmentally friendlier vehicles.

Edmund Araga, president of Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (Evap), said that other Asian countries—such as Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore—have similar systems in place where the government provides subsidies for EV purchases.

“If you make a comparison with other countries, when you buy an electric vehicle, there are subsidies like discounts or rebates. In the Philippine setting, there is none,” Araga told reporters on the sidelines of the press conference to promote the upcoming Philippine Vehicle Summit 2023 in October.

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The Evap official said they pushed for an inclusion of a state subsidy like this under the Republic Act No. 11697, or the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (Evida), when it was still just a proposed law in Congress.

“From the very beginning, as part of the technical working group of the Evida, when it was still a bill, we already included all the subsidies that we could think of. But they were removed,” he said.

While it would be a long shot given the government’s tight budget today, Araga said they were not giving up that the issue will be taken up again if the law was amended in the future.

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According to the Evap, there are currently more than 16,000 EV units in the country, a number which is expected to increase to around 6.61 million units by 2030 covering hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric vehicles.