On Tuesday, oil companies raised pump prices by about ₱5 a litre and diesel and gasoline in Metro Manila touched the ₱100 mark, going as high as ₱102 per litre. Energy Secretary Sharon Garin pointed at two causes: renewed Middle East tensions squeezing energy flows, and the peso sliding toward 63 to the dollar. We buy fuel in dollars. A weak peso shows up at the pump.
Predictably, our inbox filled with a version of the same question: is it finally time to go electric?
Here is the honest answer, with the arithmetic shown.
First, a correction to the headline
₱100 is the top of the range, not what most people are paying. Before Tuesday’s hike, gasoline in NCR ran from ₱66.06 to ₱97.35 a litre depending on brand and station. Add the ₱4.69 increase and the real spread is roughly ₱71 to ₱102. If you fill up at an unbranded station in Bulacan, you are not paying ₱102.
So let us use a realistic middle: ₱86 a litre.
The cost per kilometre
Take a typical compact crossover doing 12 km/L in Metro Manila traffic — generous, honestly, for stop-and-go EDSA.
- Petrol at ₱86/L: ₱7.17 per kilometre
- Petrol at ₱102/L: ₱8.50 per kilometre
Now the EV. A mainstream EV in local conditions uses roughly 18 kWh per 100 km. Meralco’s typical residential rate this August was ₱14.78/kWh.
- Charging at home: ₱2.66 per kilometre
- Charging on public DC fast at ₱30/kWh: ₱5.40 per kilometre
Over 1,000 km a month, that is roughly ₱7,170 in petrol at ₱86/L, ₱5,400 for an EV run on public fast chargers, and ₱2,660 for the same EV charged at home.
So the gap between a petrol car and an EV charged at home is about ₱4,500 a month — but only about ₱1,800 if you live on public fast chargers. Which is the point we keep making: the savings live in the home charger, not in the car. An EV charged exclusively at malls is a mediocre financial decision wearing a very good costume.
The part nobody puts in the headline
Three honest caveats, because we would rather you buy for the right reason.
1. Electricity is not immune to the same shock. Meralco’s generation charge is partly tied to fuel and imported gas, and those are bought in the same weakening currency. The forces pushing petrol past ₱100 will reach your kWh rate too — slower and softer, but they will. The gap narrows in a fuel crisis. Do not model it as fixed.
2. Fuel spikes reverse. Pump prices peaked around ₱155 a litre in April during the worst of the US–Iran bombing, then fell back. If you buy a car on the strength of one week’s price board, you may be signing a five-year loan against a three-month problem.
3. A weak peso makes the EV more expensive too. Imported EVs, imported chargers, imported spare parts — all quoted in dollars. The thing making petrol expensive is also nudging up the price of the solution.
What we would actually tell you
Already driving an EV or PHEV but charging mostly in public? This is the week that stops making sense. At ₱30/kWh public versus ₱14.78 at home, you are paying roughly double for the same electrons. On those numbers a 7kW home unit typically pays for itself in about two to three years at 1,000 km a month — faster if you drive more.
Still shopping? Buy the EV because the ownership case works over five to seven years, not because of Tuesday’s price board. And check your electrical service capacity before you sign anything. We have had more than one client discover their panel could not take a dedicated 40A circuit the week their car was due for delivery. That is a bad week.
Running a fleet or a delivery business? This is a genuine margin event, and the maths above multiplies by every van you operate.
For the fuller breakdown of what charging actually costs across home, public AC and DC fast, we wrote it up here: EV charging rates in the Philippines, per kWh. If you are weighing the purchase side instead, our piece on EO 121 and whether EV prices will actually drop covers the incentives question.
Want to know what a proper home charger would cost at your address? Use our instant quote tool — five quick questions and you get a written, itemised quote, usually within one working day. Free site assessment, no obligation, and the number does not move afterwards.
Prefer to just ask? Chat with us on WhatsApp or call 0993 158 1936.
MOEV Solutions is a DOE-accredited EVCS Provider — Service & Supplier, National Level (Cert. No. DOE-EUMB-ANA-20250708001).
Sources
- Diesel, gasoline prices in NCR hit P100 mark — Philippine Daily Inquirer, 8 September 2026
- Lower Rates this August 2026 — Meralco, August 2026
- EV industry seeks zero tariffs until 2040 — INQUIRER.net, 7 September 2026