MANILA, Philippines — Chinese electric vehicle (EV) brand Seres, a new player in the Philippine automotive market, will start selling vehicles in the country by September.
In a statement, the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) said QSJ Motors Philippines, the official distributor of Seres vehicles in the country, is the newest addition to the group’s growing members.
QSJ Motors Philippines intends to commence retail sales of the Seres brand in September by offering three vehicle models: the Seres 5 crossover, the Seres 5 Saker Falcon Edition, and the Seres 7 sports utility vehicle.
These three vehicle models were unveiled during the official launch of the Seres brand in the country held at Okada Manila.
A showroom offering sales, spare parts and service for the Seres brand will be established along Quezon Avenue in Quezon City by 2025.
QSJ Motors Philippines managing director Kevin Chiang said the firm aims to contribute to the growth of the EV industry in the Philippines.
“The Seres brand is dedicated to delivering high-quality EVs that meet the needs of Filipino consumers and we look forward to a successful rollout starting this September,” he said.
John Tovillo, managing director of Seres EV said the goal is to provide Filipino drivers with innovative and eco-friendly transportation options.
“By collaborating with EVAP, we aim to leverage their extensive network and industry expertise to promote our brand and achieve our sustainability objectives,” he said.
EVAP sees the introduction of the Seres brand and the inclusion of QSJ Motors Philippines in the group as a significant step in promoting EVs in the market.
“We are thrilled to welcome QSJ Motors Philippines and the Seres brand into the EVAP family. Their entry into the local market aligns with our mission to promote sustainable transportation and further drives the adoption of EVs in the Philippines,” EVAP president Rommel Juan said.
EVAP aims to continue to support its members and push for policies that will encourage the use of clean and sustainable transportation solutions in the country.
The Philippines'' electric vehicle industry is seeking more Chinese investments, with industry executives noting that Chinese automakers have the technology and financing that can help boost the local EV and battery manufacturing sector.
"Chinese investments are critical for the development of the EV industry in the Philippines," Rommel Juan, chairman of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines, or EVAP, told China Daily.
He said that as one of the world''s biggest EV markets, China is a global trendsetter for EVs. The EVAP, which was set up in 2009, includes Chinese car companies'' branches in the Philippines, and "they''re really the ones who are making the (local EV) industry grow".
Juan said the EVAP had also linked up with local battery manufacturers and nickel miners to boost the country''s battery manufacturing industry. The Philippines is one of the world''s biggest producers of nickel, a key material for making batteries.
"Since we have the raw materials, (battery manufacturing is) an investment that the Chinese companies can look into," he said.
But while some of China''s biggest EV makers such as Dongfeng Motor and Chery Group have branched out in the Philippines, these companies are only focused on distributorship, said Jose Bienvenido Biona, associate professor and director of the Center for Engineering and Sustainable Development Research at the Manila-based De La Salle University.
The move toward decarbonization has spurred the growth of the global EV industry.
The Philippine government has laid out a road map that aims to increase EV adoption in the domestic market and encourage more investments in EV manufacturing.
But while the Philippines has been producing and assembling electric tricycles for more than a decade, most locally manufactured four-wheelers are electric jeepneys as they are used for public transport. There are fewer than 9,000 EVs out of the nearly 13 million cars registered in the Philippines in 2021, according to the latest data.
"The ease of doing business in the Philippines is a lot harder," Ferdinand Raquelsantos, the EVAP''s honorary chairman, told China Daily.
EVAP president Edmund Araga said while the Philippines has a lot of skilled workers to offer potential investors in EV manufacturing, it cannot compete with other Southeast Asian countries when it comes to lower material costs, logistics and infrastructure.
Compared with its peers in Southeast Asia, the Philippines has fallen behind Thailand and Indonesia in attracting investors in EV manufacturing. For example, the Shenzhen-based BYD, the world''s top EV manufacturer, has set up a factory in Thailand. In the second half of this year, the company will start production with a focus on the Thai market for sales, according to Liu Xueliang, general manager of BYD Asia-Pacific Auto Sales Division.
BYD also plans to invest $1.3 billion to build a manufacturing plant in Indonesia, Indonesia''s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, told local media in January.
Jiang Xueqing in Tokyo contributed to this story.
CHINA: The Chinese government is keen to export thousands of electric vehicles (EVs) to the Philippines as part of a broader goal to tap markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for one of its hottest export products at the moment, a key official here said.
"The goal of our industrial park is to build a production base covering over 6.6 million square meters Now the main market for us is the southern and western part of China," Lin Shaohua, deputy director of Gangbei District, Guigang City Government, told reporters.
"We hold the goal to expand [to] the whole Asean countries," she added. Currently, the Philippines imports EVs from China through the offices of various brands from that country that have set up shop locally.
Shaohua said the Chinese government had previously organized overseas exhibition tours to Asean member countries to promote its EV products.
"We have exported EVs to Thailand [by] several thousands; maybe the same will be [true] in the Philippines," she added.
The China-Asean New Energy Electric Vehicle Production Base will cover 6.6 million square meters with a total cost of 15.7 billion yuan (approximately $2.15 billion).
According to the Guigang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, the production base has so far introduced more than 100 well-known domestic finished automobile enterprises such as Emma, Luyuan, Tailg, Lima, Zuboo and OPAI, as well as supporting enterprises such as Haopai and Feineng.
With high-quality and low-priced products, taking advantage of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, China-Asean and other trade agreements, the export trade volume of the China-Asean New Energy Electric Vehicle Production Base reached more than $8.7 million in 2022.
Moreover, with the opening of the overseas exhibition tour of the 20th China-Asean Expo this year, the Chinese government said that new energy electric vehicles in Gangbei District appeared in Singapore, the Philippines, Laos and other countries. Also, automobile enterprises exchanged and negotiated with local enterprises and residents, ushering in a period of market expansion.
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