Inside F1 Hotel’s main ballroom were major stakeholders of the electric vehicle (EV) industry in the country, as well as members of the motoring media.

They were talking about topics like range anxiety, charger adaptor (no it wasn’t the smart phone variety), lithium-ion disposal and hydrogen battery development.

Say, what?

Yes, EV has been here for more than a decade. And today there are 55 car brands here in the country. But it was still a niche in the grand scheme of things.

The stakeholders discussed extensively each and every concern about EV which, for people outside that swanky venue, was very much an alien concept.

“That’s why it’s important to educate the market on how to use an EV,” said Bob Palanca, managing director of BYD.

For those asking, BYD is considered the biggest producer of EV cars outside of Tesla.

Palanca said 90 percent of EV owners charge at home, and find no reason for range anxiety. If an EV owner regularly drives 60 kilometers day, he would only have to charge once a week.

“You don’t rely on malls, you charge at home. If you don’t have space then to have to find the nearest location which we have identified already like for instance, we have in BGC there are multiple stations where you can charge.”

BYD’s Sealion 6 DM-i just recently made a demonstration of battery range where it reached 1,000 kilometers on a single charge.

Ferdi Raquelsantos, Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) chairman emeritus, said mass information was their group’s “No. 1 objective.”

“Even I have a lot of friends and relatives who said they will first go for hybrid,” Raquelsantos told the Daily Tribune Blast.

“I told them to at least use the plug-in EV (PHEV) so that you have option to still charge. Because PHEV uses electric first before using fuel.”

He said a full charged PHEV could reach 120 kilometers and “you don’t really go 120 kilometers (a day) at all.”

Palanca and Raquelsantos joined the panel during the recent pre-event presser for the 12th Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit (PEVS) 2024.

The PEVS is scheduled for 24 to 26 October at the SMX Convention Center Manila.

Among those present in the presser were Cao Ngoc Nguyen, Philippines CEO of VinFast, which just opened shop and will be among the exhibitors in the PEVS; and Czarina Blythe Brodit, assistant general manager of Nissan Philippines.

When the EVAP first staged the PEVS in 2010, Raquelsantos said they held it at the Meralco parking lot/basketball court. Now the four halls of the SMX are still considered too small for what they said is the “biggest PEVS ever.”

The industry niche has grown leaps and bounds through the years that the government, through the Department of Energy, helped pass the EVIDA Law or the EV Industry Development Act (Republic Act 11679), paving the way for the comprehensive roadmap for the industry.

“A lot of EV brands when they offer EV, they also offer solar panels,” Raquelsantos said.

“Once you have solar panels in your house then you have completed the cycle; renewable energy free charge on your vehicle.”