Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation (PSPC) is aligning its targeted venture into electric vehicles (EVs) as part of an all-inclusive strategy to attain its mid-century ‘net zero’ goal to decarbonize its entire chain of operations.

Randolph T. Del Valle, vice president for Mobility of PSPC, indicated that the company has been pursuing discussions with several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on targeted transformative shift to electric mobility.

“We have a lot of OEMs who have been speaking with us, we’ve been working with them – some of the other partners that are local, they really want to do that shift, we’ll be working with them,” he stressed.

Del Valle said this year’s enactment of Republic Act 11697, or the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (EVIDA), has been stimulating massive interest for investments and overall capital flow in the emerging EV industry of the Philippines.

“We’ve been continuing to work with the government for the past three (3) years and we’ve worked with the OEMs as well; and we’ve worked with various partners because this is something that we’re really truly committed,” the Shell official conveyed.

He further asserted “we’re so happy with the new EV Act, in fact, we’ve been part of the consultation in terms of how it’s actually written, so we do have a team that is working on this.”

Del Valle similarly stated that part of Shell’s investment trajectory for EV is to use renewable energy as a source of electricity for the chargers that will cater to the EV fleets.

“Together with Shell Energy Philippines, it is also there that we can provide renewable source of electricity or energy sources that will truly make it exciting and we will be doing something this year,” he pointed out.

PSPC President and CEO Lorelie Quiambao-Osial highlighted that Shell’s strategy is “powering progress - and for us, it means setting out and providing more and cleaner energy solutions at pace with society. We’re doing that globally at Shell, but the pace of that will be different per country. In the Philippines, it will be at the pace of the Philippines.”

She added “for us, we’re continuing to see opportunities in that space and continue to work with government as well.”

Osial qualified that EV “is an exciting space...e-mobility is something globally that we are quite advancing in Shell and now continuing our discussions with the DOE (Department of Energy), with OEMs in moving that forward, so watch that space.”

She emphasized “energy transition is a multi-sectoral challenge and definitely requires multi-sectoral approach and we’re therefore willing to partner with government – and the institutions to bring about our net zero ambitions.”

The Shell chief executive further noted their company is “doing a lot of things in this space, look at the products that we offer – we’re continuing to innovate in terms of lower carbon products; even in terms of packaging – so if you will look at lubricant products, you will see lower carbon packaging as well.”

Osial underscored “we are looking at carbon offsets... if you look at our approach on different construction and roads, commercial fuels and lubricants, we’re also looking at our customers and partners by sector and really exploring how we can work together to decarbonize those sectors; and we’re also looking at other nature-based solutions moving forward, even for non-fuel retail.”