The proposed special Philippine Brand Vehicles (PBV) program has attracted keen interest and commitments from the industry players including Japanese assemblers, which dominate the domestic market, but stayed away from developing a customized vehicle model that could truly be called a Philippine brand.

Trade and Industry Undersecretary and Board of Investments managing head Elmer C. Hernandez revealed this as the BoI is approaching homestretch in the crafting of the new Motor Vehicle Development Program of which the PBV is expected to be a major highlight in this industry blueprint.

“Existing automotive players including the Japanese are looking at that already and committed to customize a model for their PBV entry,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez explained that the PBV concept is a multi-purpose vehicle that could be useful for the Filipino masses as a form of transport, for family use or for entrepreneurial purposes.

“It is neither a passenger car nor a sports utility vehicle because we have addressed those vehicle segments already,” he said.

A PBV model must be a new vehicle - engine, parts and all – are OEM (original equipment manufacture), but it does not mean it must have a high local content.

“You can import the parts or source them locally,” Hernandez said.

A PBV does not even mean it should be locally designed, but Hernandez said that players can customize their own model to meet the local specifications to be able to serve primarily the Philippine market.

Hernandez noted that the current vehicles sold in the market are also being marketed in other markets and there has been no customized model for the Philippine market.

The popular but already phased-out Tamaraw-FX of Toyota was not custom built for the Philippines as it was originally made for Indonesia under its Kijang brand.

In pushing for the PBV strategy, the BoI has taken a cue from Thailand’s successful one-ton truck strategy, which was customized to suit the Thai market. The Thai one-ton truck was backed up with a generous government incentives program.

In the case of the Philippines, Hernandez said, the lowly jeepney is the commonly used vehicle for transport, family use and cargoes.

But, no one had taken the cudgels to improve this unique vehicle because there was no incentive.

To push for the improvement of the iconic Philippine jeepney and to promote the PBV in general, Hernandez said there are standards and measures to make it competitive.

“This is not an open-ended program, we are going to set the standards,” he said including the granting of incentives to make it more attractive to investors and for the market to refleet the old and reconditioned units that are contributing to air pollution.

This is expected to create a niche market for PBV or the multi-purpose vehicle, Hernandez said.

“This will now open opportunities for parts markers to produce for the use of the PBV,” he said.

This also calls for the granting of tax incentives to make the investment worthwhile and to encourage the end-users to refleet by making the brand new jeepney more affordable.

“We have to have the carrot and stick strategy because we have to make it attractive and competitive,” he stressed.