Danish shipping and logistics company Maersk’s Philippine unit is facing challenge in meeting its decarbonization commitment due to the lack of charging stations in the country.

“The challenge for Maersk logistics in terms of decarbonization here is charging stations are not yet readily available. That’s for the land side, where we use electric vehicles (EV) for trucking services. That’s what we are currently working with our regional decarbonization people,” said Melissa San Gabriel, country manager of Maersk Filipinas Inc., in an interview on Tuesday.

Despite the various laws that incentivize investors for electric vehicles, an official of the Board of Investments, and an EV group revealed last year that the Philippines indeed lags against its Southeast Asian counterparts when it comes to EV charging stations.

“We are also working with global partners that could potentially supply EVs for tractor heads. Not too soon for the Philippines. I think we are seeing some traction in other locations in Southeast Asia. But we would like to partner with the government and other partners like suppliers to enable us to support the greener logistics in the country,” Gabriel added.

Maersk has only a handful of electric trucks in its contract logistics segment, outsourced to Mober.

“Most of our EV trucks are outsourced. And they (Mober) only have a few EVs,” according to Gabriel.

Under the government’s Comprehensive Roadmap for the Electric Vehicle Industry or CREVI, more than 7,300 charging stations are envisioned in the Philippines for 2023 to 2025. As of last year however, the total number of charging stations operating throughout the country is only 338, according to the Electric Vehicles Association of the Philippines.