For people who drive for or to a living, fuel prices remaining high means that every trip carries an increasingly painful cost.
It is against this backdrop that VinFast recently extended a free-charging program in the Philippines, along with Vietnam, Indonesia and India. The policy covers charging at V-Green stations until March 31, 2029, applying to both new and existing customers, both individual drivers and drivers using VinFast cars for transportation service.
This sits within a broader push to make EV ownership easier to access and easier to live with. In current conditions, though, the effect shows up most clearly in day-to-day expenses. And with a few simple calculations, the difference becomes easier to see.
Let’s start with the VF 6 Plus. Over a typical 1,200 km month, its energy use lands at around 155.5 kWh. At a home charging rate of P13.8161 per kWh, that translates to roughly P2,150 monthly, or close to P77,000 across three years. With free charging in place, that entire amount is taken off the table.
A similarly sized gasoline vehicle moves in the opposite direction. At 6.5 liters per 100 km, monthly fuel use reaches about 78 liters. With gasoline currently priced at around P80 pesos per liter, that comes out to roughly P6,240. That recurring cost keeps building over time, and it is this gap that starts to shape the ownership math. Even without incentives, the VF 6 already runs at less than half the monthly energy cost.
The VF 5 follows the same logic, just on a slightly smaller scale. Monthly usage comes out to around 137 kWh, which means roughly P1,890 in charging, or about P68,000 over three years. With free charging, that cost is removed.
A gasoline alternative in this segment sits at about 6.8 liters per 100 km. At 1,200 km a month, that is around 81.6 liters, which translates to roughly P6,500 pesos monthly, or about P235,000 over three years.
At the smallest end, the mini-SUV VF 3 brings the baseline down even further. Monthly energy use settles at around 104 kWh, equivalent to about P1,440, or roughly P52,000 across three years. Again, that number disappears entirely with charging covered by VinFast.
Even the most efficient gasoline options in this size range, consuming around 3.95 to 5 liters per 100 km, still land at roughly 60 liters a month. At P80 per liter, that is about P4,800 monthly, or over P172,000 across three years, and more if efficiency drops in real traffic.
“Once you remove fuel cost from the equation, the rest becomes easier to plan,” said Paolo Reyes, a Quezon City-based driver who daily drives a VF 5. “That extra P3,000 a month goes straight to groceries, a new laptop for the kid, or even a small fund for a family trip.”
To know more about VinFast and its complete roster of full electric vehicles, visit its official website https://vinfastauto.ph/en.