Zonda (Zhongda) Motor Group Company, China’s leading bus and coach manufacturer, is conducting a feasibility study for its planned electric car manufacturing facility in the country both for exports to the ASEAN market and local market.

Trade and Industry Secretary Jesli A. Lapus told reporters that he met Zonda’s company officials who relayed this good news to him during a recent visit in China for the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Philippines and China.

“They are coming here to conduct a feasibility study,” Lapus said.

Lapus told Zonda to comply with ASEAN’s 40 percent local content requirement, the threshold level by which a product can be considered ASEAN-made and therefore entitled to national treatment and be entitled to zero duty when exported to other ASEAN member countries.

Lapus said the company has to study the cost of producing electric cars in the country because this technology has not yet been tested here.