In short
It also includes a coding exemption and priority registration with a special plate. It does not set an import duty, an excise tax or a loan interest rate.
Those come from three separate instruments: Executive Order No. 12 and its 2024 expansion, and BIR Revenue Regulations No. 1-2025.
Only BDO prices an EV loan lower: 8.00% to 8.50% a year, against 10.00% to 10.50% for its other brand-new cars. The manufacturing side alone carries a PHP 60 billion incentive ceiling under EO 121.
- Law
- Republic Act No. 11697 (EVIDA), signed April 15, 2022
- MVUC/inspection discount
- 30% for battery EVs, 15% for hybrids, for 8 years from EVIDA's effectivity
- Non-fiscal incentives
- Coding exemption, priority registration, special plate
- Excise tax on a full EV
- 0% (BIR RR 1-2025); hybrid pays 50% of the normal rate
- Import duty on EVs and covered hybrids
- 0% until 2028 (EO 12 s. 2023, expanded by EO 62 s. 2024)
What RA 11697 (EVIDA) actually gives you, and what it does not
EVIDA's fiscal incentive is a discount on registration-related costs, not a purchase subsidy or a lower loan rate. It is 30% off the Motor Vehicle User's Charge for a battery EV and 15% off for a hybrid.
The same percentage applies off vehicle inspection fees, both for 8 years from the law's effectivity in April 2022.
Its non-fiscal incentives are exemption from the mandatory vehicular volume reduction program (number coding), priority registration and renewal, and a special type of license plate.
What EVIDA does not contain, based on the Department of Energy's own incentive summary, is an import-duty exemption for the vehicle itself. It also excludes an excise tax break.
Those come from separate laws and orders, detailed below. A page or post that credits EVIDA with "0% import duty" or "lower excise tax" is attributing another instrument's incentive to the wrong law.
| Incentive | Battery EV | Hybrid | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| MVUC discount | 30% | 15% | 8 years from effectivity (April 2022) |
| Vehicle inspection fee discount | 30% | 15% | 8 years |
| Number coding exemption | Yes | Yes | 8 years |
| Priority registration and special plate | Yes | Yes | 8 years |
| CBU charging-station import duty exemption | n/a (equipment, not the car) | n/a | 8 years |
Excise tax: a full EV pays none, a hybrid pays half
The excise exemption comes from the TRAIN law (RA 10963) as implemented by BIR Revenue Regulations No. 1-2025, issued January 6, 2025, not from EVIDA. A purely electric vehicle is fully exempt from the excise tax on automobiles.
A hybrid is taxed at 50% of the rate that would otherwise apply. BIR determines which vehicles qualify by checking the Department of Energy's own stated list of recognized electric vehicles.
That list separately classifies battery EVs, plug-in hybrids and standard hybrids.
The standard excise schedule these percentages apply against has been unchanged since TRAIN took effect January 1, 2018. It runs from 4% on a vehicle priced up to ₱600,000 to 50% above ₱4,000,000.
The exemption and the 50% hybrid rate are applied at the point the car leaves the factory or customs. That is why they show up in the sticker price rather than as a separate rebate a buyer claims.
Import duty: 0% until 2028, but not from EVIDA
Executive Order No. 12, signed January 13, 2023, removed tariffs on EVs and their parts for five years. It explicitly excluded hybrid EVs at the time.
The NEDA Board approved an expansion on May 15, 2024, adding several categories to the zero-tariff list. This was implemented through Executive Order No. 62, series of 2024.
The added categories are e-motorcycles, e-bicycles, NiMH batteries, e-tricycles, hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The Department of Finance states plainly that tariffs on these added categories are reduced to 0% until 2028.
A further order, Executive Order No. 121, series of 2026 (the EV Incentive Strategy or EVIS), adds a manufacturing-side incentive.
It offers up to ₱60 billion in fiscal support to qualified manufacturers assembling EVs domestically, capped at ₱15 billion per model. The Fiscal Incentives Review Board approved it in May 2026.
The DOE's own estimate is that local manufacturing under EVIS could cut EV prices by roughly 6% to 12%. On some models, that could be as much as ₱200,000.
That is a DOE projection, not a guaranteed price cut. BYD financing covers one brand already selling under the current zero-tariff window.
Do PHEVs and hybrids qualify for the same incentives as full EVs?
Partly, and the gaps matter. On the MVUC and inspection-fee discount, hybrids get 15% against a battery EV's 30%, not the same rate.
On excise tax, a hybrid pays 50% of the standard rate while a full EV pays nothing. On import duty, hybrids and plug-in hybrids were excluded from EO 12's original 2023 zero-tariff order.
They were only added in the May 2024 expansion under EO 62, running to 2028 like the rest of the list.
The Department of Energy defines a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) as a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery can be charged from an external power source. That battery is called its RESS, or rechargeable energy storage system.
This is a technical distinction that determines which recognized-vehicle list a specific model lands on and, in turn, which incentive tier applies.
There is no EV buyer tax credit or cash rebate in the Philippines
Several searches for this topic come from US tax-credit terminology ("2025 ev tax credits," "national retail consumer cash") that has no Philippine equivalent.
No official source retrieved states a cash rebate, a buyer-side tax credit, or a car-loan interest deduction for an EV purchase in the Philippines.
What comes closest to a financing incentive is a bank's own commercial pricing decision, such as BDO's lower EV/hybrid loan rate. That is the bank's choice, not a government mandate.
See EV and hybrid car loan rates for what banks actually state. See car loan interest and taxes for the separate question of deducting loan interest.
EVIDA lowers what an EV owner pays in registration and MVUC. It does not lower what a bank charges on the loan. Treat any claim that links the two as unsourced.