Last week we wrote about the DOE pushing to get charging station permits approved in weeks instead of months. It turns out that was only half the story. The other half landed this week: the DOE is about to require buildings to install chargers in the first place.
What was announced
In a DZMM interview on August 22, Patrick Aquino, director of the DOE’s Energy Utilization Management Bureau, said the agency will issue a circular within August requiring building owners — public and private — to allot at least 5% of their parking slots to EV charging stations.
The rule applies to any establishment with at least 20 parking slots, and it covers both new and old buildings. It’s anchored on Section 17 of the EVIDA law (RA 11697), which has required dedicated EV parking with charging in new buildings since 2022. What’s new is that the circular extends the obligation to existing buildings, with an installation guide for structures that were never wired with EVs in mind.
Do the math and 5% is a modest floor: a 20-slot building needs one charging slot, a 200-slot mall needs ten. But multiplied across every mall, office tower, and condominium in the country, it’s a lot of chargers. The DOE counts roughly 1,800 charging locations nationwide today and wants 7,000 by the end of 2028. Voluntary rollout wasn’t going to get there. A mandate might.
If you live in a condo, this is the story to watch
We’ve been honest before that condo dwellers have the hardest path to home charging — you can’t just run a cable from your unit, and everything goes through the admin. Until now, an admin could simply say no, and that was the end of it.
This circular flips the default. Once it takes effect, a condo with 20 or more parking slots will be required to provide charging access — and the DOE has said directly that older buildings are the reason the circular includes tailored technical provisions, so “our building is too old” stops being a permanent answer. Secretary Sharon Garin’s own example in the announcement was exactly this: aging condominiums where residents currently have no charging access at all.
It won’t be instant, and it won’t put a charger in your personal slot. But if your admin has been deferring the conversation, the regulatory ground is about to shift under them. Our guide to getting an EV charger approved in your condo covers how to start that conversation properly.
If you own or manage a building, start planning now
For property managers, HOAs, and business owners, the honest advice is: don’t wait for the circular to be signed to start thinking about it.
The hard part of complying won’t be buying chargers — it’s the electrical work behind them. A row of 7kW chargers is a serious load. Older buildings will need a load study before anything else: what the panel can take, whether the transformer has headroom, how metering and billing will work, and how to phase the install so you’re not ripping up the carpark twice. The DOE’s tailored provisions for old buildings will help, but they won’t do the engineering for you.
Two things worth knowing before you take quotes. First, EVIDA and its DOE rules require charging stations to be installed and operated by accredited providers — MOEV is DOE-accredited at the national level (cert DOE-EUMB-ANA-20250708001). Second, done right, this isn’t just a compliance cost: paid charging slots in a busy location earn revenue, and buildings that already offer charging are ahead of a tenant market that’s buying EVs faster every quarter.
The honest caveats
The circular hasn’t been signed yet — “within August” is the DOE’s own timeline, and details like compliance deadlines, penalties, and whether the required chargers must be a minimum speed are all still unknown. If you’re a homeowner with your own garage, this changes nothing for you; your driveway was never the DOE’s problem. And 5% is a floor, not a transformation — most parking will stay ordinary parking for years.
But direction matters. Faster permits plus mandatory slots is the clearest signal yet that the government intends charging to be everywhere, not just in showcase malls.
Thinking ahead of the mandate?
If you manage a building and want to know what compliance would actually cost — load study, hardware, installation, metering — get a written quote from our team, or message us on WhatsApp at 0993 158 1936. No obligation, and we’ll tell you honestly if your electrical system needs work before chargers make sense.
Sources: Top Gear Philippines, Unbox.ph, Philstar.
Is MOEV legit? A quick legit check
If you found us through Reddit or a Facebook EV owners group and want to do a legit check before letting anyone near your electrical panel — good, you should. MOEV Solutions is a DOE-accredited EVCS Service, Supplier and Operator (Cert. DOE-EUMB-ANA-20250708001, National Accreditation Level), our installers are licensed electricians, and you can see real completed jobs on our projects page and our Google reviews. Ask us for the certificate and the electrician’s license before work starts — we send them every time. If you have a question from a Reddit thread you want answered by an actual installer, message us.