VGreen, VinFast Implements Free Charging to in PH, in Time for World EV Day

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Vietnamese automaker VinFast recently rolled out an ambitious 2.5-year free charging program starting September 9, World EV Day, to overcome price barriers in the Philippines. This audacious play will provide completely free charging to all its customers until May 2027 – a move that could cost the Vietnamese automaker millions but might finally crack open Southeast Asia’s most challenging EV market.

The company has partnered with V-GREEN, an independent charging infrastructure provider owned by billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, to offer unlimited free charging at participating stations nationwide. For context, this isn’t just a token gesture: with electricity costs averaging around P12-15 per kilowatt-hour in the Philippines, a typical VinFast owner could save P50,000–80,000 annually on charging costs alone.

The Philippines struggles with one of the slowest EV adoption rates in the region. Currently, electric vehicles represent less than 0.1% of total vehicle sales in the country, compared to 3–5% in neighboring Thailand and Indonesia.

V-GREEN has committed to installing up to 15,000 charging ports by 2025 — a nearly ten-fold increase from the current infrastructure. This expansion will span major expressways, shopping centers, and urban hubs across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, directly addressing what industry experts call the Philippines’ “range anxiety crisis.”

The partnership leverages recent government momentum under the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (EVIDA), which already exempts EVs from excise taxes and provides expedited vehicle registration. However, despite these incentives, high upfront costs and charging infrastructure gaps have kept EVs largely confined to affluent Manila suburbs.

VinFast’s aggressive approach reflects the company’s global ambitions and the competitive pressure it faces. The Vietnamese manufacturer, which only entered the Philippine market in 2022, is racing against established players like Tesla, BYD, and local distributors who are eyeing the country’s 110 million consumers and growing middle class.

The company is betting that comprehensive support — including 10-year warranties on both vehicles and batteries, covering up to 200,000 kilometers — will convince Filipino buyers to take the electric plunge. VinFast has already established showrooms and service centers nationwide. Though, analysts question whether the infrastructure can handle rapid scaling if demand surges.

The real test will come in the next 18 months. If VinFast can convert the free charging program into sustained sales growth, it could reshape the Philippine automotive landscape. If not, the company will have spent considerable resources on what amounts to an expensive market experiment in one of Asia’s most price-sensitive consumer markets.

For Filipino consumers, however, the calculus is suddenly much simpler: for the next 2.5 years, going electric with VinFast means never paying for fuel again.