The Department of Energy (DOE) targets installing 7,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging points before 2028, a DOE official told the Senate finance subcommittee on Thursday.
The agency’s goal is in line with its commitment to expand and promote the adoption of EVs in the Philippines, reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, and lessen its dependence on fossil fuels amid rising gas prices.
‘We have 1,926 electric vehicle charging points as of today, and the target is 7,000 before 2028. We’re almost 25% of the way there,’ DOE Energy Utilization Management Bureau Director Patrick Aquino said.
To boost the establishment of EV charging stations, the DOE will soon require EV charging points in parking lots of residential buildings and along major roads, thereby incentivizing the use of EVs or hybrid EVs.
According to Aquino, the DOE will soon issue a joint memorandum circular with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Anti-Red Tape Authority, and the Department of Public Works and Highways on the ‘streamlined permitting and operation of the electric vehicle charging stations.’
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin also shared that the agency is entering into agreements with local government units to roll out charging stations.
‘We’re just pushing the major thoroughfares [to install charging stations] so [drivers] won’t fear going to Baguio or going to Batangas, but I think it will be organically the private stakeholders who will put it up,’ Garin said