If you pay any attention to those periodic lists of the top cities in the world with the worst air pollution, chances are excellent that you've seen Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city, on the list more than once.
And of course, if you either live there or have ever visited, you probably weren't surprised. More likely, you were just happy to confirm your sneaking suspicion that it's not great for any living creatures that like to, you know, breathe.
As you may or may not be aware, Vietnam is also a nation where two-wheeled transportation is massively popular. There are cars, buses, and trucks on public roads, too, but it's hard to understate the sheer volume of motorbikes you'll see on the road (and the sidewalk), especially if you visit any major city. I've been there; I've seen it in person. The flitting and zooming of untold numbers of small-displacement motorbikes in Hanoi puts even Bangkok to shame.
Put another way, Statista noted that over 65 million motorcycles were registered in the country as of 2020. Just four years later, Agence France-Presse (AFP) estimated the number at closer to 77 million. And the majority of these motorbikes are small-displacement ICE machines.
Of course, if you live or work in a major city like Hanoi, you have a vested interest in making your air quality better. So, even though so many everyday people rely on bikes as their main means of transportation, that's why more than one effort to restrict or even ban motorbikes from certain congested areas has arisen over the years.
In June 2023, the city of Hanoi's People's Committee officially approved a motorcycle restriction program for 12 major districts of the city. If enacted as planned, it would result in a total ban on motorcycles in those districts by 2030. Ouch.
As we stand on the precipice of 2025, that's only five years away. That's likely why both the government and Vietnam's homegrown EV industry are pushing so hard to get riders to adopt EV motorbikes en masse. So far, they have yet to catch on in big numbers, for a number of reasons you've probably already seen raised in other markets as well. While the bikes on sale can be charged at home, charging-related fires are a motivating fear.
Misinformation about a fire in Hanoi in 2023 that killed 56 people reportedly resulted in other apartment buildings putting the kibosh on EV charging altogether. An investigation by police later revealed that EV charging wasn't the cause of that fire, but by the time the truth came to light, the damage to public confidence was already done.
There are also the usual concerns about lengthy charging times, as well as up-front costs to purchase a whole new motorbike and concerns about the high cost of future battery replacement once your original battery is no longer usable.
OEMs are addressing these issues in different ways. When I had the chance to ride several of Vinfast's electric scooters a couple of years ago, the company touted a program where riders could purchase the scooter outright, and then pay a low subscription fee for the battery.
And while I'm usually against anything that resembles "software-as-a-service" or "battery-as-a-service" or (shudder) "motorcycle-as-a-service," this idea actually made sense to me.
Why? Because EV batteries are, in a single word, expensive.
Under this plan, Vinfast would own the battery, and once its charge capacity dipped below a certain point spelled out in the agreement that you'd sign, you'd be able to simply return it to the company in exchange for a new one. Assuming the company kept its word and honored that agreement, it seemed like the kind of thing that could do a lot to allay fears of suddenly having an EV motorbike-shaped paperweight parked out front.
That was two years ago. And although Vinfast's EV cars have received a slew of negative reviews here in the States since their release, their scooters (which we don't so far get) still seem to have this battery subscription model available in their home country in 2024. And the costs of ownership are exactly the same as they were when I first rode them, according to the Vinfast website. What else can you say that about in 2024?
But what if, for any number of valid reasons, you don't want to charge your EV motorbike at home? That's where another Vietnamese EV motorbike maker called Selex is aiming its offerings. Since so many riders use motorbikes as delivery vehicles, it's aiming its swappable battery-equipped Selex Camel firmly at those riders. And it's been busy setting up battery swapping stations in major cities, so that riders can simply pull up, swap batteries, and be on their way with minimal time lost.
The road to EV motorbike adoption is all uphill at this point. But if enough people adopted them in Hanoi and beyond, could that convince the city to reconsider enacting its pending motorcycle ban? It seems like the most agreeable solution for the greatest number of riders, honestly, so here's hoping it does.
