SOMEONE had to glue the numbers on by hand. That’s what it came to in late March, when staff at gas stations in Metro Manila were manually gluing paper digits onto digital price boards because the displays weren’t built for what they were being asked to show. Five-digit fuel prices turned out to be beyond what the technology could handle, even if the price itself had no such limit.
A state of National Energy Emergency was declared by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. under Executive Order 110. By then, pump prices for diesel and gasoline had already crossed P100 per liter, the first time in the country’s history. More interesting is what it is doing to people’s plans.
EVs gain ground while the broader market contracts
Car sales generally were soft in the first two months of 2026. Electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids told a different story. Joint data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines (Campi) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) put electrified vehicle sales at 5,701 units between January and February, compared with 3,416 in the same two months last year — nearly 67 percent higher. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) carried most of that volume, but the number that really stands out is in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which went from 47 units to 556. People want the savings, but they are not quite ready to bet everything on finding a charger. At a BYD dealership in Makati, staff reportedly took a full month’s worth of orders in the first two weeks of March alone.
A nationwide survey by Agile Data Solutions Inc. (ADSI) gives that some context. About one in six Filipinos say they would actively save toward an EV or hybrid if transport costs keep climbing. In a country where most commuters rely on public transport and budgets are tight, that is not a small signal.
“Every fuel price increase reshapes how Filipinos think about mobility. What was once routine becomes a daily calculation,” said Jason Gaguan, chairman and co-founder of Agile Data Solutions Inc.
Cost, charging keep most on the sidelines
Filipinos already know what EVs are. The ADSI survey found nearly all respondents are familiar with electric and hybrid vehicles, and more than half have ridden in one in the past three months. That part is not the problem. The problem is everything that comes after knowing: the price and the practical reality of charging where you live.
Purchase cost tops the list of barriers, with battery lifespan and replacement costs close behind. Charging infrastructure compounds it, and Filipinos are essentially split down the middle on whether what is available today is sufficient.
The 2026 Deloitte Global Automotive Consumer Study puts a harder edge on this. Most Filipino EV intenders want to charge at home, but only around one in eight has a dedicated residential charger. For families in dense urban neighborhoods without private parking, it is a practical wall.
The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has launched a dedicated green auto loan program for EVs and hybrids, with lower rates and longer repayment terms than a standard car loan. For buyers for whom cost is the main obstacle, that is where the gap between intent and ownership gets closed.
Jeepney operators caught in the squeeze
From the driver’s seat of a traditional jeepney, none of the above looks the same. Thirty liters of diesel a day is what a standard unit needs to run. At current prices, that is more than P3,000 gone before the driver sees a peso of profit. What actually lands in his pocket, according to the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (Piston), is reportedly P200 to P300 — a far cry from the P500 to P700 he was taking home before the crisis. Strikes broke out in March, with drivers calling what was happening to them by one word: profiteering.
The Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program was meant to steer jeepney fleets toward cleaner, electric options. It has been slow and expensive, and the crisis has made that slowness harder to accept.
There is a version of the EV transition that works well for people with private parking and enough financial buffer to absorb a big upfront cost. But it does not address what is broken. Gaguan was direct about it: “For most households, the decision is still shaped less by environmental intent and more by financial practicality.”
The government has set its sights on 6.6 million EV registrations by 2030, under the most ambitious version of its clean energy plans. Consumer willingness probably is not the obstacle. Many Filipinos are already open to the idea. But a driver clearing P200 on a day that burned through P3,000 in diesel is not waiting on infrastructure timelines or financing programs. That gap, between the version of this transition that works and the version most Filipinos are actually living, is what still needs crossing.