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Philippines EV infrastructure: the law already chose the chicken

By Jerreson Cabalde, Founder, ZEEE Green Business Consultancy. Posted 4 November 2026.

Should the Philippines wait for enough electric cars before building chargers, or build chargers first and let the cars follow? Our law answered that in 2022. Republic Act 11697, the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (EVIDA), tells buildings with 20 or more parking slots to set aside at least 5 percent of them for electric vehicles (EVs), and it carries fines. The open question in 2026 is when that answer gets put into practice.

The cars arrived first

At the 14th Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit in Pasay last month, which I attended, the president of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP), Willy Tee Ten, said the "chicken and egg" problem "is now being solved because both vehicles and chargers are here." On the vehicles, the numbers back him up. On the chargers, they don't yet.

From January to August 2026, the Department of Energy (DOE) counted 66,685 electrified vehicles sold. That is about a quarter of all new vehicle sales. Of those, 29,649 were plug-in hybrids and 16,320 were fully battery electric. The other 20,716 were hybrids that never plug in.

In my view, fuel prices did most of the selling. Plug-in hybrids did the rest of the work: a buyer can take one home without any public charger nearby, because the engine is a backup. So demand didn't wait for the network.

There's a catch, though. A plug-in hybrid that is rarely plugged in runs mostly on fuel, and its owner pays an EV price without the EV savings. For car owners in condominiums and older buildings with no charger of their own, where they park every day decides whether the car pays off.

The chargers are not keeping up

DOE counted 1,569 charging points in March 2026 and 1,876 at the end of August. That is about 61 new points a month.

Two details change how that count reads:

  • 528 of the 1,876 are battery swap stations, which mostly serve electric motorcycles. That number has not moved since March.
  • Fast chargers for cars grew quickly, from 260 to 470 in five months.

The roadmap that goes with EVIDA, the Comprehensive Roadmap for the Electric Vehicle Industry (CREVI), aims for 7,300 charging points by 2028 under its normal scenario. DOE officials have also cited a target of about 7,000 by the end of 2028. To get there from 1,876 at the end of August 2026, the country needs close to 190 new points a month over the 28 months to December 2028. At 61 a month, we reach about 3,600 by then, roughly half.

By my count, the market now sells about 94 plug-in cars for every new charging point it adds.

EVIDA already answered the question

EVIDA doesn't leave the chicken to chance. Section 17 requires dedicated EV parking in new buildings, and sets the floor at 5 percent of slots where there are 20 or more. Local governments may not issue construction or renovation permits without it. Existing buildings must follow within the CREVI timeframe. Section 18 lets the CREVI decide when those slots must have chargers, and gives building owners first priority to install and run them. Section 28 sets fines of PHP 50,000 to PHP 500,000, plus possible loss of permits.

That is a direct government answer to the chicken or egg question. Build the space for charging, by law.

Four years on, the answer is still mostly on paper. In August, DOE said the circular that sets out how the rule works was still under technical review. In September, DOE Undersecretary Mario Marasigan said the draft would require at least 10 percent of parking slots in condominiums and similar properties to have registered, inspected chargers. When I wrote this in early November, I couldn't find a published version of the circular, and I haven't seen a public report of any fine under Section 28.

Other countries built a small base, then let demand lead

No country I looked at built public chargers far ahead of its cars. Most did something closer to this: build a small base so buyers aren't stranded, let price and fuel costs drive sales, then push chargers to catch up.

China planned in 2015 for 4.8 million charging points to serve 5 million EVs by 2020. By the end of 2018 it had 2.61 million EVs and only 808,000 charging points. The cars sold anyway, helped by large purchase subsidies, and most charging moved to homes and workplaces. Today China has about 24.2 million charging points, and 19.1 million of them are private.

In the United States, Tesla built a fast charging network for its own cars and still runs about half of all US fast charging ports. The federal government's highway charging program had spent about USD 94 million of the USD 4.4 billion made available by January 2026. And when the USD 7,500 tax credit for EV buyers ended on 30 September 2025, the EV share of new car sales fell from 11.4 percent that month to 5.8 percent the next. Chargers kept getting built while sales dropped.

Thailand cut up to 150,000 baht off the price of each electric car under its EV 3.0 scheme, paid through the carmakers, and gave tax breaks to charging companies. By March 2025 it had 11,622 chargers, including 6,524 fast chargers, about 48 percent more fast chargers than its own plan for 2025.

Norway took purchase tax off EVs from 1990 and has fast chargers on all its main roads; most owners there charge at home. In 2025, 95.5 percent of new cars sold in Norway were fully electric.

Two economic studies tested which kind of public money works harder. One, on US data from 2011 to 2013, found that spending the tax credit money on charging stations instead could have been more than twice as effective (Li, Tong, Xing and Zhou, 2017). The other, on Norway from 2010 to 2015, found each dollar spent on charging stations brought more than twice as many extra EV sales as a dollar spent on price cuts, though that advantage fades as spending grows (Springel, 2021). Both point the same way for a market at our stage: money for chargers goes further early on.

Ethiopia went the other way. In January 2024 it banned imports of petrol and diesel private cars, and Bloomberg reports EVs went from under 1 percent to nearly 6 percent of vehicles on its roads in two years. Chargers came afterwards, and its state companies are now building them in a hurry. Ethiopia could do this partly because its hydropower delivers electricity at about USD 0.10 per kWh and owners charge at home. Our average power rate reached PHP 12.43 per kWh in June, which DOE says is now the highest in Southeast Asia, and many of us live in condominiums.

So the Philippines has more reason than Ethiopia to make sure chargers are where cars park.

Finishing what EVIDA started

The law has already done the hard part, which is choosing. What's left is the work that makes the choice real:

  1. Issue the DOE circular and start applying Section 17 and Section 28 as written.
  2. Adopt the 10 percent draft for condominiums. Cars there park overnight, so one charger serves about one car, and residents often can't install their own.
  3. Finish the joint circular that DOE, the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Anti-Red Tape Authority are preparing to cut charging permits from up to six months to three months or less.
  4. Publish clear timelines and costs for connecting a charger to the grid.
  5. Set clear pricing rules for charging. The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has draft rules open now. This week I filed comments on them from a property owner's point of view.
  6. Report car chargers and motorcycle swap stations as separate counts, so everyone plans on the same numbers.

If you own a building with a car park

The 5 percent rule is already law for buildings with 20 or more slots. New buildings meet it at the permit stage, and existing buildings will be held to the CREVI timeframe. The slots don't need working chargers yet, but Section 18 makes the owner first in line to install and run them when the CREVI says so.

Condominium developers and associations should watch the DOE circular closely. If the 10 percent draft holds, that is double the floor in the law, with chargers in place.

Some of the demand is already parked in your lot. I expect plug-in drivers with no charger at home to look for one where they park during the day.

Sources

About ZEEE Green

ZEEE Green Business Consultancy is an independent EV charging advisor based in Santo Tomas, Batangas, serving commercial property owners across CALABARZON, Philippines. It assesses whether a property suits EV charging and advises owners on how to plan and evaluate their charging options, including DOE-accredited charging Providers. ZEEE Green does not sell, install or operate chargers, and it does not broker, lease or sell property.

A note on interest: we earn our living advising property owners on EV charging, so more chargers at properties is good for our business. I've kept every figure in this piece to what the sources above show.

If you own a commercial property in CALABARZON and want to know where it stands under EVIDA, book a free site screening (limited slots each month) or call +63 993 208 7891.

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