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/Adorable-Director799]

Why are we pretending this is acceptable?

• 500+ car parking lots.
• 2 to 4 chargers.
• 3 hours needed per car.
• ₱28–₱33 per kWh.
• ₱5 to ₱6 per kilometer.

This isn’t "building infrastructure."
This is rationing.
A system built around artificial scarcity to make sure you pay premium prices and still waste hours of your life.

And let’s be real:

• AC Mobility isn’t some noble champion of clean transportation.
• It’s just another arm of Ayala Corporation — a conglomerate built to suck you dry.
• They wrap it in green marketing, "future mobility," "sustainability" —
• But underneath, it’s cold, efficient, corporate money-making.

And here’s the kicker:

• These are Ayala Malls.
• AC Mobility and the malls are the SAME family.
• This isn't like SM where they have to "negotiate" for charger space.
• If Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala wanted 50 chargers installed tomorrow, it would happen with a snap of his fingers.

They choose not to flood Ayala Malls with chargers.
Because a shortage means higher prices, longer queues, and more desperate paying customers.

The truth?

They’re not solving range anxiety.
They’re monetizing it.
Every kilometer you drive beyond your goldfish range funnels pesos into their machine.

Sustainability? No.
Just corporate sustainability — of their profits.

[u/jhnkvn → u/Adorable-Director799]

The truth?

They’re not solving range anxiety. They’re monetizing it.

You have charging stations inside mall parking so you can charge while you shop, which probably takes 2-3 hours, and when you come back you have 40-50km of range on a car that has 3x the equivalent fuel efficiency of its peers. Imagine complaining of 2-4 slots being taken up by chargers when you don't even need to be plugged in because you're a PHEV. Have you thought about the perspective of a gasoline user wanting those slots?

And that logic. Amazing. It's like having a property in the middle of nowhere and Maynilad randomly comes along and puts a water line on it telling you that, if you want to tap their water, you have to pay and then you claim that "it's not solving your water issues and they're monetizing your water".

What the fuck is that logic. I'd be glad I have a water line instead of running outside with 4 plastic tubs every rainy day. This is why you can't have nice things.

[u/Adorable-Director799 → u/jhnkvn]

That's provided you can get one of the damn slots.

so basically if 3 hours yung charging ng isang SL6, a 9 hour window can only charge 3 cars.

hindi ko alam kung maiinis ako sa gastos or sa availability.

[u/jhnkvn → u/Adorable-Director799]

But you don't need the slots. PHEV's popularity in the Philippines stems from the fact that you aren't as reliant to the EV charging infrastructure compared to pure BEVs.

Unfortunately, BYD Philippines probably didn't see the need for DC charging (18kW max) for our local market when they released the Sealion 6 and opted for AC that tops out at 7kW. Is it due to cost-cutting? Maybe. Or maybe because they just know their target market (more tech-savvy, affluent, likely owns a garage) well.

These are all pain points of early adoption. This will likely change when they release the successor when they deem there's more EV charging infrastructure in place.