The Philippines is set to enter the electric vehicle (EV) market with the inauguration of its first battery manufacturing plant, announced by President Ferdinand Marcos on September 30, 2024.
“We have worked very hard and tried to do our best to bring this kind of technology to the Philippines with a clear recognition that this is the future,” President Marcos stated. He highlighted the significance of the facility, the country’s first for advanced iron phosphate batteries, in establishing the Philippines as a key player in the region’s clean energy storage sector.
Located in New Clark City, the new plant is expected to create approximately 2,500 local jobs and inject around $89.2 million into the economy annually, as reported by ABS-CBN News. The facility, owned by an Australian company, will produce lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, with a goal of achieving an annual production capacity of 2 gigawatt-hours (GWh) by 2030, sufficient to power 18,000 electric vehicles or nearly half a million home battery systems.
As the Philippines embraces clean energy technologies, the interest in electric vehicles is gradually increasing. Notably, Tesla and Starlink, both of Elon Musk’s companies, have begun operations in the country. Currently, only a small number of Tesla vehicles are found on Philippine roads, primarily through private imports. However, Tesla is expanding its local presence with plans to open a store in Uptown Mall at Bonifacio Global City (BGC), with job listings already available for the new site.
