6th PH Electric Vehicle Summit to be Held Next Month

The future of mobility is leaning towards electrification, which means that cars will soon be powered by an electric motor. First world countries and some of our neighbors in Asia have already started to embrace this concept. How about us? Is the Philippines ready to go electric? To answer that question, the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) together with the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and Partnership for Clean Air (PCA) will be holding the sixth Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit (PEVS) in July. The sixth PEVS will focus on areas of collaboration to drive wider electric vehicles (EVs) adoption for public and private transport. As such, this year's summit will feature the organization's intention to push and to expand electric vehicles for private transport. This means that the sixth PEVS will not only showcase electric public utility vehicles (PUV), but it will also highlight Nissan's and Mitsubishi's electric vehicles. "It is our belief that by stepping up partnerships, we can electrify public and private transport much faster. Since we started our advocacy ten years ago by building our first e-jeepney…we feel that everything is falling into place now," said EVAP President Rommel Juan. Juan added that government and business interest in electric transport has improved significantly as "costs associated with EVs begin to drop and charging infrastructure start to expand." He also said during the press con held at the Board of Investments that the "whole world is going electric--whether we like it or not." The sixth PEVS summit will also give an update regarding the Department of Transportation's Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program. Topics such as financing programs, standards development, route rationalizations, among others will be discussed. With that in mind, the sixth PEVS will take place on July 10 and 11 at the SMX Convention Center in the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City.