Vietnam sets EV charging rate at $0.097 per kWh, above manufacturing power

Vietnam will charge VND2,549 ($0.097) per kWh for electricity at medium-voltage EV charging stations, state utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) said in a statement last Friday. The price excludes VAT and took effect on November 1. It sits above the rate for manufacturing activities, below the rate for other businesses, and higher than the household rate.

That headline number only tells part of the story. EVN set separate prices for each voltage level and time of day, which means what an EV driver's charging operator pays depends on when the charger runs.

What are the new rates?

At medium voltage, defined as 1–35 kV, charging costs VND1,534 per kWh off-peak, VND2,549 in normal hours, and VND3,758 at peak. At low voltage, up to 1 kV, the rates run higher: VND2,700 ($0.103) per kWh in normal hours, VND1,620 off-peak, and VND4,212 at peak.

In every band, EV charging pays more than manufacturers and less than other businesses.

How big are the gaps?

The spreads shift across the day, according to EVN's figures:

• Normal hours: EV charging costs roughly 40% more than manufacturing and about 10% less than other businesses.
• Off-peak: the gap narrows to about 32% above manufacturing and 3% below other business.
• Peak: EV charging sits roughly 12% above manufacturing and 24% below other business.

The takeaway in plain words: charging overnight is where the arithmetic works best, and peak-hour charging carries the stiffest premium.

When do the peak hours apply?

Peak runs from 17:30 to 22:30, Monday through Saturday. Off-peak runs from midnight to 6:00 every day. Sunday has no peak hours at all — a built-in discount window for weekend charging networks.

How much power does Vietnam have behind the plugs?

The pricing decision lands on a grid that is growing fast. For the first ten months of 2026, Vietnam's national power system produced 297.4 billion kWh, up 9.8% from a year earlier, according to the figures reported with EVN's announcement.

The generation mix for that period:

• Coal: 147.78 billion kWh, or 49.7% of the total — still the largest single source.
• Hydropower: 73.39 billion kWh, or 24.7%.
• Renewables: 40.72 billion kWh, or 13.7%, split between solar at 24.04 billion kWh and wind at 15.37 billion kWh.
• Gas turbines: 23.28 billion kWh, or 7.8%.
• Imports: 11.77 billion kWh, or 4%.

Coal still supplies roughly half the country's electricity, which means every kWh pushed into an EV today carries a heavy fossil share — even as renewables quietly clear 13% of the mix.

What comes next?

Vietnam is already building the regulatory scaffolding around public charging. Under a separate policy announced in October, the country will require public EV charging stations to support compatible vehicles from July 2027. With differentiated pricing live as of November 1 and a compatibility mandate on the calendar, charging operators in Vietnam now have both the cost structure and the compliance deadline they need to plan against.