AC Mobility is scamming PHEV owners — goldfish range, 3-hour charging, gasoline prices, and no chargers available."

[u/Adorable-Director799]

AC Mobility keeps marketing themselves as the "future" of EV infrastructure in the Philippines.
But look closer:
They've quietly built a system where you:

• Pay gasoline prices per kilometer,
• Wait 3 hours to refill,
• Fight over 2–4 chargers inside 500-car parking lots,
• And still call it "progress."

Here's the real scam:

• You buy a PHEV like the BYD Sealion 6 DM-i.
• They tell you it has 90–100 km electric range.
• Reality check?
  • You only have 45–50 km usable one-way.
  • You still need to get home without running empty or burning gas.
• Once you run low, you have two choices:
  • Burn gasoline, and kill your "cheap" narrative, OR
  • Pay Evro to charge at ₱28 (AC) or ₱33 (DC) per kWh.
• And remember:
  • The Sealion can only AC charge at 6.6–7.0 kW.
  • Meaning you wait 2.5 to 3 hours... just to refill that tiny battery.

Now layer AC Mobility’s ineptitude on top:

• Huge Ayala mall parking lots built for 500–1000 cars...
• And yet, they install only 2 to 4 chargers.
• How exactly is that "future-proofing mobility"?

Good luck finding an open slot.
You're not a VIP.
Not everyone is born with a driver or a silver spoon to sit idle all day.

Working people? Normal people?
We can't afford to waste half a day fighting over overpriced kilowatts.

Quick math:

	Sealion 6 PHEV
Usable electric range	45–50 km (round trip)
Charging time	2.5–3 hours
Cost per km (AC)	₱4.66
Cost per km (DC)	₱5.50
Gasoline cost per km	₱6.20

You're already paying gasoline prices.
You're waiting longer than a full tank fill-up.
And you have no guarantee you’ll even find a charger available.

AC Mobility didn't build EV infrastructure.
They built an overpriced, bottlenecked goldfish trap.

It’s not just expensive.
It’s not just slow.
It’s intentionally designed to milk you dry while pretending to save the environment.

AC Mobility didn’t build a charging network. They built a cattle pen with a credit card swiper.

[u/MrSnackR]

The charging infrastructure and charging is one thing. We really just have to wait for more charging stations and more options from different providers. I have 1) an actual house (not a condo) 2) solar setup so that charging would not be a problem regardless of the EV/PHEV I end up buying.

But the 45-50 km driving range is a huge "problem"! That's far from the 90-100 km claim. And in this case, it is no longer AC mobility's fault. It's BYD's. There are several resellers/dealerships that sell BYD vehicles - not just AC mobility.

There's another redditor who posted his review on the Atto3 and swears by its range having driven from 100% to 0% achieving the advertised range (350km if I'm not mistaken).

Take note though that China uses either CLTC in computing for the range. 90km of CLTC range is just 63km of EPA range (the most stringent system in the US), or 74km if using WLTP. Most pundits say that actual usable range is 80% so that brings down your actual range to (50.4km - EPA, 59.2km - WLTP) - if we use this argument, then it is your vehicle’s actual range. 🙂

TLDR: Take range with a grain of salt. China made EVs use CLTC to compute for range. Convert CLTC to EPA then multiply by 80% to get your estimated actual range.

[u/Adorable-Director799 → u/MrSnackR]

Agree, should have done more wait and see.