The Philippines drops import duties for electric vehicles.

A Philippine inter-agency panel chaired by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr approved removing tariffs on electric vehicles (EVs) to spur demand amid high fuel costs. The scheme will apply not only to cars, but also buses, delivery scales, trucks, motorbikes, and e-bikes.

Marcos will issue an executive order cutting to 0% the most favored nation tariff on EVs like passenger cars, buses, vans, trucks, motorcycles, and bicycles, and their parts for five years. Current import duties range from 5% to 30%.

Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the executive order aims to expand market sources and encourage consumers to consider acquiring EVs, improve energy security by reducing dependence on imported fuel, and promote the growth of the domestic EV industry ecosystem.

Consumers in the Philippines need to shell out $21,000 to $49,000 for an EV, versus the $19,000 to $26,000 price for conventional vehicles. Tariff rates on hybrid cars will not change.

The Philippines has more than five million registered automotive, and only 9,000 are electric, mostly passenger vehicles, government data show. Personal EVs account for just 1% of the market and are mostly owned by the extremely wealthy, data from the United States International Trade Administration show.

The Southeast Asian nation's automotive sector relies mainly on imported fuel. It also buys oil and coal abroad for its energy generation needs, making it vulnerable to price volatility.

Source:

i) Neil Jerome Morales (2022) Philippines to cut tariffs on electric vehicles, parts