Electric vehicles are often framed as a clean break from the past. But for the Philippines, EVs will only thrive if the country first rebuilds what it has steadily lost: a strong automotive manufacturing base.
That is the message from the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP), which is urging government to reinstate budget support for the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) and the Revitalizing the Automotive Industry for Competitiveness Enhancement (RACE) programs.
The argument is pragmatic, not ideological. EVs are not a standalone industry; they are an extension of the same complex ecosystem that produces conventional vehicles.
EVAP president Edmund Araga points to regional peers such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. These countries did not jump directly into electric mobility. They spent decades building scale in vehicle assembly, developing supplier networks, training workers, and creating policy certainty. Only then were they able to attract EV assembly, battery plants, and advanced mobility investments. Their EV success is built on an internal combustion engine (ICE) foundation.
The Philippines, by contrast, risks skipping a critical step. Without CARS and RACE, local assembly volumes shrink, parts makers hesitate to invest, and skills atrophy.
That directly undermines EV ambitions. EVs still need wiring harnesses, electronics, body parts, thermal systems, and eventually power electronics and batteries—components produced by the same suppliers that serve ICE vehicles. Without volume and continuity, those investments simply do not happen.
This is where policy coherence matters. Pushing EV adoption while letting the broader auto industry weaken creates a fragile market dependent on imports, vulnerable to supply shocks, and unable to generate high-quality manufacturing jobs.
EVAP’s call reframes the debate. The future is not ICE versus EVs, but coexistence and transition. Hybrids, conventional vehicles, and EVs can evolve together—if government policy supports the entire value chain. Reinstating CARS and RACE is not a step backward. It is the groundwork for an EV industry that can actually scale, compete, and endure.
