The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) met recently for their annual General Management Meeting (GMM) and Christmas party to assess the effect on the domestic electric vehicle industry of the recent decision of the Department of Energy to scrap its $500 Million eTrike Project.
EVAP President Rommel Juan said in his President’s report that although this was a big blow to EVAP’s efforts to develop the domestic EV industry, this is just a temporary setback and the EV industry must live with it and craft a very definitive roadmap for the EV industry for the next ten years.
“And we are happy to announce that the most important event that day was the unveiling of the new roadmap for the Philippine EV Industry that EVAP has produced together with its partner Meralco. Our EVAP Executive Director Bong Cruz outlined the short, medium and long-term action plans of the new roadmap covering the next ten years which will be formally submitted to the BOI”.
The EV Industry roadmap considers action plans amidst the recent decision of the DOE to scrap the implementation of the rest of the 100,000 planned ETrikes to be deployed in various local government units throughout the country.
Juan explains that EVAP has outlined a roadmap to empower the private sector to develop the EV industry further in the country in the next five critical years. “One of the most important factors of the new roadmap is the effort to pass the proposed EV and Hybrid Bill in both the Senate and in Congress. This bill will definitely be the focus of EVAP this coming 2017”.
Cruz revealed that the roadmap also contains very important initiatives like helping TESDA craft a curriculum for the nationwide training program for EV maintenance, servicing and repairs and the formulation of standards for EV parts and components, the EV itself and in the test procedures to be used for testing.
“We also will work for setting up of one of the most important EV structure needed, battery charging and swapping stations in strategic locations in the country. And to boost sales, we will work to have green financing available at the retail sector. We will encourage foreign investments and joint ventures with foreign EV players and develop the export market. We hope that the Philippines will soon be the manufacturing hub for EV parts and components in the region”.
Juan also reported on all the activities done by the association for the year including the EV Summit, the signing of MOUs with Japan and Korean counterparts on the advancement of EVs in the region and the sharing of best practices and the visits to counterparts in Thailand and Malaysia for observation of EV infrastructure and applications. (Malaya)
