The era of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country might finally see the light of day as a law regulating it is expected to be ready by the last quarter of 2019.
According to the report by BusinessWorld, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said that stakeholders and government agencies expressed their support of Senate Bill No 174 or The Electric Vehicles and Charging Stations Act.
Gatchalian said that the bill promoting EV adoption in the country is in line with the Duterte administration’s path toward the goal of having “environmentally clean and ecologically safe energy sources in addressing the country’s energy needs.”
The bill aims to resolve the challenges in developing the promising domestic EV industry by empowering the Department of Energy to come up with an electric vehicle road map, and distribution utilities to draft a charging infrastructure development plan.
The proposed bill seeks to address the entirety of the EV ecosystem including the most crucial of them all – charging stations.
Aside from that, the measure will require both private and public establishments and buildings to have exclusive parking space with charging stations for electric vehicles.
The bill also seeks to exempt electric vehicle owners from the “number coding” scheme and prioritization in registration, the BusinessWorld reported. – With Victor V. Saulon/BusinessWorld