The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) is preparing for the first ever ASEAN Electric and Hybrid Vehicles Summit it will host this coming June 29 to 30, 2017 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. The event is being co-organized with the Board of Investments (BOI) and Manila Electric Company (Meralco).

This EV Summit will be part of the ASEAN National Organizing Committees series of events for 2017 as it is the country’s turn to host the ASEAN Summit. The Philippines will be the host for this year as the chairmanship is rotated among the ASEAN member countries.

The BOI is supporting the event which aims to promote the use of electric and hybrid vehicles in the region, spur its local manufacturing and assembly and promote foreign investments. EVAP member companies will be featuring the latest electric vehicles and EV technologies in the country as well as hybrid vehicles from the local automotive manufacturers and assemblers.

EVAP President Rommel Juan says that in the ASEAN region, the Philippines probably has the most potential for electric vehicles especially for public transport applications such as jeepneys and tricycles. “The business opportunities lie in the need to modernize the aging and ailing mass transport system and electric jeepneys and electric tricycles are the more viable options.”

“We can see that once electric vehicles move to the mainstream level in the Philippine mass transport system, we will be looking at supplying the replacement vehicles in the large domestic market of 350,000 diesel-fueled jeepneys and 1.2 million gas-fed tricycles,” says Juan. “And with a large production volume, we can then have the economies of scale to become the manufacturing hub for electric vehicle and parts in the ASEAN region. This we hope will then open up the ASEAN region as the staging point for subsequently exporting to the other parts of the globe.”

EVAP VP Edmund Araga reveals that EVAP is now closely coordinating with its ASEAN counterparts in order to get the key players in the region to participate in the event. “We are now travelling around the ASEAN region to invite our ASEAN counterparts to the summit, for them to exhibit their latest products and technologies and to share their best practices with us. It is the perfect opportunity for us in the AEAN to unite and promote EV applications so that together, we can make a better and cleaner world for the next generation.”

At the latest organizing committee meeting with BOI Executive Director Corieh Dichosa and the ASEAN National Organizing Committee in attendance, details were finalized on how best the event can be successful and synch with the other ASEAN activities for the year. “We hope that the event will help spread the electric and hybrid vehicles initiative in the ASEAN region and eventually, the world with the Philippines as the focal point,” Dir. Dichosa says.