THE Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) is slated to hold the 9th Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit (PEVS) on September 23 and 24.

Next week’s summit marks its 11th year as the biggest annual conference focusing on promoting electric vehicles (EVs) in the country.

With the theme “Accelerating the Switch to Electro-Mobility in the Philippines,” the two-day virtual event will be an important platform for policy dialogue and exchange of knowledge, experiences, and best practices aimed at speeding up the country’s timely adoption of electro-mobility in the local transport. This is still in line with the national government’s drive toward a low-carbon economy.

Among the highlights of the 9th PEVS are the symbolic signing of the memorandum of understanding by stakeholders to fast track the switch to EVs and its related technologies.

Keynote messages will be delivered by the EV champions of the legislative and executive branches of the government. The British Embassy Manila will also support and participate in THE EVENT FOR THE fiRST TIME.

The 9th PEVS was supposed to be held on August 26 to 27 but was postponed following the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine, the strictest quarantine level, from August 6 to 20.

“EVAP, together with our partners and other stakeholders involved in this much-awaited conference, has decided to make this adjustment in support of the national government’s pandemic response program,” said EVAP President Edmund Araga.

“PEVS is all set to stage its second virtual summit this year but we are one with the rest of the industry in cooperating with efforts to curtail the further spread of this dreaded coronavirus,” he added.

The second digital edition of PEVS is being organized by EVAP together with the Manila Electric Co. and in partnership with the Department of Energy.

Event major partner is Nissan Philippines in cooperation with Mitsubishi Motors Philippines, Power Equipment and Supply Inc., Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc., Delta Electronics International (Singapore) Pte Ltd. and Shell Mobility Philippines.

EVAP previously noted the transformation of the local transportation sector to electromobility is “very slow compared to our Asean neighbors like Thailand and Singapore.” Asean is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Among the indications of this pace is the dismal modernization of public jeepneys into environmental-friendly vehicles.

As of June 2020, the Department of Transportation reported that only 18,000 jeepneys across the country have been modernized — out of over 200,000 registered public jeepneys.

Araga likewise cited the Global EV Outlook of the International Energy Agency in saying there was a strong momentum in EV markets despite the pandemic.

There were 10 million electric cars on the world’s roads at the end of 2020, following a decade of rapid growth. Electric car registrations increased by 41 percent in 2020 despite the pandemic-related worldwide downturn in car sales in which global car sales dropped 16 percent.

Around 3 million electric cars were sold globally (a 4.6-percent sales share) and Europe overtook China as the world’s largest electric VEHICLE MARKET FOR THE fiRST TIME.