Toyota featured the Prius at the last PIMS in 2016, showcasing its plans for the future ahead of everyone else. The country’s biggest industry backed automotive show is just around the corner and car companies are now scrambling to be at their Sunday’s-best for this biennial event.

The 7th Philippine International Motor Show (PIMS) is presented by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippine or CAMPI, the biggest and oldest automotive association in the country, every two years.

The PIMS will be held 24-28 October at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. Supposedly the biggest auto show in the country, it has been overshadowed by the annual Manila International Auto Show (MIAS), though.

The show’s theme is “Future of Mobility” and this is a dead giveaway of the car models member companies of CAMPI will be putting on display for the four day automobile extravaganza.

This early, no mention of the vehicle line-up was announced, just the date and venue of the show. Even CAMPI could not give us a final list of the car manufacturers that will join the show, it could shrink or grow. At the moment the group led by Palawan Governor Jose Alvarez — Kia, Peugeot and Mahindra — announced it will not be joining this year’s show.

The show’s theme is “Future of Mobility” and this is a dead giveaway of the car models member companies of CAMPI will be putting on display.

As it is, though, we could probably predict some displays based on the “Future of Mobility” theme.

We know Nissan will feature its biggest electric product to date, the Nissan Leaf, since it was extensively introduced in the ASEAN since early this year. The Leaf has seen some exposure in the Electric Vehicle Summit held a couple of months ago and is doing the rounds of our urban centers.

Mitsubishi has been parading its Outlander Plug-In Electric Hybrid and was also a main feature in the last EV Summit. Of course, there is the Mitsubishi e-Evolution unveiled at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show (TMS) but we are not sure if there is a unit available for our PIMS. The i-Miev has a bigger chance of showing up at the affair.

Honda could bring in its new fuel-celled vehicle technology, but at the moment it has the CR-Z Hybrid locally that is doing quite well in the market. There is also the Clarity that is very popular in the US and an under-development all-electric Jazz (Fit in Japan).

Toyota presented the i-Concept at last year’s TMS, a group of electric mobility units that can serve both multiple and single passengers. But it being a concept, it may not be available for display. It has the 2018 Prius and the 2018 Lexus CT200h hybrids that we expect to be the main showcase for their booth.

Still, there is a lot more to car electrification than having a car run on pure electricity. Hybrids and fuel-celled cars have been produced to replace the fossil fuel. Mazda, however, is still bent on creating the best internal combustion engine which we saw early this year in Fukuoka, Japan. It could make a local appearance in October’s auto show.