I will answer my own question straight away: yes, we can. In fact, we already are. The real issue is not capability, but courage, scale, and coordination.

Years ago, we tried to build a Filipino car. We got as far as the Sakbayan and the Tamaraw. Both ran on internal combustion engines (ICE), and that was where the argument always ended. We could not build our own engines, so we concluded—rather lazily—that we could not build our own car. As a result, we settled for partial efforts and missed a historic opportunity.

What makes that argument even weaker in hindsight is Malaysia’s experience. Proton used Mitsubishi engines. Perodua used Daihatsu engines. Nobody questioned whether those were “real” Malaysian cars. They were assembled, adapted, branded, and eventually owned by the Malaysians themselves. They competed with foreign brands and survived. We could have done the same. We didn’t.

Now history is giving us a second chance.

The electric vehicle (EV) has quietly removed the biggest excuse we ever had. The ICE—complex, expensive, and proprietary—has been replaced by an electric motor. Fewer moving parts. Simpler architecture. More modular. And suddenly, the question is no longer “Can we build an engine?” but “What is stopping us now?”

Consider this: we already have a Filipino-made EV called TOJO. For now, it comes as an electric jeepney, but that is only one design step away from becoming a car. 

What is significant is not the body shape—it is the heart of the machine. TOJO manufactures its own AC motor locally. That is no small thing. The motor is to an EV what the engine was to a traditional car.

A few years ago, Star8 built so-called “pure solar” vehicles in Las Piñas. These vehicles could run on solar panels mounted on their roofs and could also be charged like regular EVs. They fabricated their own vehicle bodies locally, even if some components were imported. They did not brand themselves as a “Filipino car,” but they could have. And nobody could have stopped them.

Let us be honest: no car in the world is 100% local. Tesla imports parts. BYD imports materials. Even Japan and Germany depend on global supply chains. The idea that a Filipino vehicle must be built entirely from Filipino atoms is nonsense. What matters is where the value is created, where the skills are developed, and who controls the design and direction.

We already fabricate jeepneys, tricycles, buses, boats, and farm equipment in every province. EVs are actually easier to build than diesel vehicles. They are modular. They are repairable. They lend themselves naturally to local workshops, cooperatives, and circular manufacturing systems.

And yet, there is a strange silence.

Who today is publicly advocating for a Filipino car? Not a committee. Not a vague movement. A clear voice. A clear vision. The late Raul S. Manglapus once pushed this dream. Today, it seems to have faded into footnotes and nostalgia.

This vacuum is dangerous—but also full of opportunity. EVs align perfectly with climate goals, industrial development, local manufacturing, and community livelihoods. They do not require billion-peso factories. They require imagination, coordination, and political will.

So I ask again: can we make our own electric vehicles?

 We already have. The real question now is: will we finally believe in ourselves long enough to finish the job?

If nobody else is willing to raise that flag, I am willing to hold it—for now.

RAMON IKE V. SENERES

http://www.facebook.com/ike.seneres iseneres@yahoo.com senseneres.blogspot.com