The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) today announced the installation of its new Board of Directors, with Willy Tee Ten, President and CEO of the Autohub Group, taking the helm as President. The transition comes at a pivotal moment for the Philippine automotive industry, as electric mobility shifts decisively from the margins to the mainstream, and as EVAP positions itself to lead the industry through its most consequential decade yet.
In addition to Tee Ten, the incoming board is composed of ACMobility Head of Mobility Infrastructure Carla Buencamino as Vice President; Metro Goldrich Construction President Mark Rola as Corporate Secretary; Autokid Subic Trading CEO Kevin Yao as Treasurer; and PESIN President and CEO Jojo Conde as Auditor. EVAP founders Ferdinand Raquelsantos will serve as Chair Emeritus and Rommel Juan as Chair, while longtime EVAP President Edmund Araga will assume the role of Ex-Officio Immediate Past President.
A Legacy Carried Forward
“Over the years EVAP has become a movement, one built by people who believed in electric mobility long before it became the conversation it is today,” said Tee Ten. “We are excited to carry that work forward and to keep pushing the boundaries of what the Philippine EV industry can accomplish.”
Tee Ten, a veteran automotive entrepreneur whose group has brought several electric vehicle brands to Philippine shores, brings with him a long personal commitment to sustainable mobility. The Autohub Group, which distributes brands including Zeekr, Mini, and Lotus in the Philippines, has been an EVAP member-company and active participant in the association’s advocacy and events.
Outgoing president Edmund Araga, who served four terms at the helm of EVAP, expressed his full confidence in the incoming leadership and his own eagerness to remain engaged in the association’s work.
“Passing the presidency to Willy and this new board is something I do with great pride,” said Araga. “What EVAP helped shape over these years belongs to every member of this association and to every Filipino who dared to believe that we could transform our transportation landscape. Rather than stepping away, I will be right there in the technical working groups, sleeves rolled up, doing the work that still needs to be done.”
Araga’s tenure was defined by a series of landmark achievements: championing the passage of Republic Act No. 11697, the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (EVIDA) in 2022; helping shape the Comprehensive Roadmap for the Electric Vehicle Industry (CREVI) in 2023; and leading the formation of the Asian Federation of Electric Vehicle Associations (AFEVA) in 2020, of which he remains president.
An Industry at an Inflection Point
EV sales in the Philippines surged from under 1,000 units in 2022 to nearly 20,000 units in 2025, driven by increasing consumer demand, government incentives, and expanding infrastructure. Electric vehicles reached a 7 percent share of all vehicles sold in the country in 2025, a gain of 342 percent over the prior year. Charging station availability has tripled from approximately 300 in 2023 to nearly 1,000 in 2025, with the industry now targeting 7,300 stations by 2028.
Ride-hailing companies have rolled out EV taxi fleets, which officials have described as a game changer for Philippine transport. A lithium battery factory in Tarlac was inaugurated in September 2024, aiming to produce batteries to power up to 18,000 EVs by 2030. Industry leaders have set a target of approximately 7,300 public EV charging stations by 2028, compared with roughly 1,100 currently available nationwide.
“We are at a moment in this industry that the people who started EVAP could only have dreamed of,” said Tee Ten. “And I say that with genuine gratitude, because they did dream it, and they worked for it for a very long time. It is an honor—one I feel deeply, and that every member of this incoming board shares—to take the wheel now, when the road ahead is finally clear. We are not starting from scratch. We are building on a foundation that is firmly in place, and that gives us every reason to be excited.”
About the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines
The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines was established in 2009 as one of Southeast Asia’s earliest industry organizations dedicated to the promotion and development of electric mobility. EVAP was founded out of a deep, genuine desire to help address worsening environmental pollution in the country’s transport sector, which had long been dependent on fossil fuels, particularly in public transportation.
EVAP holds the annual Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit, which brings together member-companies and their international counterparts for business-to-business, business-to-consumer, even business-to-government engagements. Now in its 14th edition, the Summit has grown into a fixture of the Philippine automotive scene.
Today, EVAP counts over 88 member-companies and seven pioneering university partners among its members. It is accredited by the Department of Energy, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Bureau of Philippine Standards, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development. The association continues to drive the country toward its goal of 50 percent EV adoption in new vehicle sales by 2040, with an intermediate target of 6.6 million EVs on the road by 2030.
