Fuel costs continue to climb, but VinFast’s latest programs offer a different equation. Free charging and added incentives turn everyday driving into a more predictable and lower-cost routine.
Fuel prices in the Philippines are moving up again. As of March 17, pump prices have posted another round of increases, extending a weeks-long trend. For people who drive for or to a living, this 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.
Alongside that, Vingroup, VinFast’s parent company, has also rolled out a limited-time “Trade Gas for Electric” program across the same markets. Customers switching from gasoline vehicles can receive an additional 3% discount on VinFast electric cars, layered on top of existing incentives. It runs from March 11 to March 31, 2026, and adds a more immediate reduction to the upfront cost.
Rather than being positioned as a short-term response, both programs sit 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 13.8161 pesos per kWh, that translates to roughly 2,150 pesos monthly, or close to 77,000 pesos 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 fuel priced at 65.25 pesos per liter, that comes out to roughly 5,090 pesos. 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 1,890 pesos in charging, or about 68,000 pesos 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 5,300 pesos monthly, or about 191,000 pesos 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 1,440 pesos, or roughly 52,000 pesos 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 65.25 pesos per liter, that is about 3,900 pesos monthly, or over 140,000 pesos 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 2,000 to 3,000 pesos a month goes straight to groceries, a new laptop for the kid, or even a small fund for a family trip.”
