Around this time in 2018, I was in Singapore to attend the Nissan Futures symposium, where the Japanese automaker discussed the results of a study called “The Future of Electric Vehicles in Southeast Asia.” In essence, I learned that 37% of motorists in Southeast Asia and 46% of the same crowd in the Philippines were open to owning an EV. Today, three years later, Nissan shared the latest version of the study, which basically shows the same numbers (37% for Southeast Asia and 45% for the Philippines) but reflects significant improvements in several important areas.

In particular, the replies of 3,000 online participants revealed that people are now less concerned about the following issues regarding electric cars:

• Running out of power
• Limited public charging infrastructure
• Safety of EV technology
• Limited personal charging infrastructure
• Ongoing maintenance and operation costs

The study was conducted by the market research firm Frost & Sullivan.

Meanwhile, the top incentive that would encourage car owners in the Philippines to shift to EVs is tax cut, followed by charging infrastructure and priority lanes.

All of this tells us that Nissan is bent on the electrification of its product line. We’re still waiting for the introduction of the Leaf electric car in our market, but it seems to be as near as it has ever been. Are you ready to park a Nissan EV in your garage?