The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) said it is wise if the government, at this early, will already craft a policy banning the importation of secondhand electric vehicles (EVs) into the country.
EVAP President Edmund Araga and EVAP Chairman Emeritus Ferdinand Raquelsantos said that banning the entry of used EVs will protect the consumers from safety issues, first and foremost.
“At present, we don’t have testing facilities that can address issues on evaluating such second hand cars that has no supporting documents that such units have passed necessary testing,” Araga said.
Banning used EV importation also aligns with the Comprehensive Roadmap for the Electric Vehicle Industry (CREVI) program, which is mandated by the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act to promote EVs in the country. CREVI acts as a long-term guide for the Philippines to transition to electric mobility, reducing its environmental impact while fostering a robust and competitive national EV industry.
For his part, EVAP Chairman Emeritus Raquelsantos supports such a policy. “We will denounce any move to import second hand EV’s. This is the same position we did back in 2004 when we opposed importation of used vehicles,” he said.
Raquelsantos recalled that back in 2004, the local automotive industry fought hard for the banning of 2nd Hand Vehicle imports, as it affects very much the manufacturing and assembly of locally produced vehicles and its component parts manufacturing.
Allowing importation now of 2nd hand EV’s will affect consumers safety and disrupt the EVIDA’s objective to have a homegrown eV assembly.
“I have seen stockyards in China full of unsold EV’s produced by some lesser known brands. My guess would be that, there are some technical or safety issues on those models and those would likely be the one they will try to export and dump to other countries. If ever it gets to our shores, we dont even have Testing Facility to subject those 2nd hand EV’s. Also right now, we don’t have a firm program for the Battery reuse/recycle end of life solution, so we don’t really want to have low quality and sub standards eV units,” said Raquelsantos.
The bottom line is that the the domestic automotive industry does not allow importation of used or 2nd hand vehicles either combustion engines or electric-vehicles. “And any move to amend it especially on EV’s should be opposed,” he said.
Earlier, Dennis Ng, president and CEO of the country’s largest EV delivery fleet, Mober Inc., was the first to call on government to ban the importation of used electric vehicles (EVs) given the difficulty in disposing toxic batteries and to avoid a repeat of the importation of used trucks and buses that only made the country a mere dumping ground of old units causing pollution in the country.
Ng raised this concern as he himself had received offers from China to import second hand EVs. According to Ng, the battery of remaining battery life of the second hand EVs battery is only good for one year.
“We don’t know yet where and how to dispose the EV batteries, which have toxic chemicals,” he said.
“Disposition of EV batteries is difficult, it is toxic. So, I hope the government will listen,” he said.
Ng said he is also preparing a letter addressed to Sen. Win Gatchalian, committee chairman on energy and author of the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act law.
Ng further recalled a previous government policy allowing the importation of old buses and trucks to augment transportation needs in the country. That policy resulted in the country becoming a dumpsite of old technologies and highly polluting buses.
