The top electric vehicle players in the Asia Pacific Region were present last Tuesday at the Diamond Residences Makati to discuss the implementation of the APEC Electric Vehicle roadmap. Representatives from the USA, New Zealand, Mexico, Korea, Japan, China and Malaysia among others presented their own EV perspectives from their respective countries.
The event was opened by Philippine Automotive Federation Inc. President Bimbo Mills and an introduction about the Global EV trends was then presented by BOI Director Corieh Dichosa.
Trends, new technologie, policies, regulations and even government incentives were presented in order to share and disseminate best practices in the region in the hopes of catapulting the APEC EV agenda. One of the biggest concerns was the harmonization of international standards for electric vehicle parts and components, the vehicle itself and on the test procedures to be used. Another major concern was the battery issue related to its lack of sufficient standards, high cost, short range and safety concerns.
For the Philippine side, Rommel Juan, president of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines presented the Development of the Philippine EV Industry which is quite unique and contrasting from the EV industries of other countries. “Most of our EV applications are in the area of mass transport application with most of our EVs either electric jeepneys or electric tricycles. The more advanced countries have cars and hybrids.”
Juan explains that another stark contrast of the EV industry in the Philippines versus the others is that it is spearheaded by the private sector such as the local EV players and manufacturers. “In all the other EV industries in other countries especially the more advanced ones, it is led by the mainstream global automotive players like General Motors, Nissan, Ford and Toyota. In the Philippines, we are also aggressively pursuing the local public transport market which really needs modernization. This makes the Philippines a very lucrative market for the local industry players and gives them a potential to grow and even later, export their EV products around the region. This also makes the Philippine market ripe for the foreign players to market their mainstream EV products here and even go into joint ventures with local EV players.“
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