The Vietnamese government‘s plans to bar petrol motorbikes from Hanoi’s city centre by July 1, 2026, have been met with skepticism and concern.
The directive, issued by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, aims to reduce air pollution and promote the use of electric vehicles.
However, observers have questioned the feasibility of enforcing the ban within such a tight timeframe, citing the limited public transport, patchy electricity grid, and lack of charging infrastructure in the city.
Mai, a Hanoi resident, said that while she supports the initiative, many people in the city are divided on the ban. “People have two opposing opinions,” she said. “Half agree to change and half do not.”
The ban is part of a broader push to phase out fossil fuel transport, with officials studying the introduction of a similar ban in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s economic powerhouse.
Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnamese-born visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, pointed to the insufficient charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, limited public transport, and concerns over the unstable electricity supply in northern Vietnam.
“It’s just a mess if you look at the overall picture,” Giang said. “In a very short span of time, it’s really difficult to make it happen.”
The summer of 2023, when blackouts hit Hanoi and surrounding northern provinces, forced factories to shut down and “caused a lot of turbulence for the population,” Giang added.
“This is a very quick green transformation – without proper preparation, I think that would cause a problem for the electricity system in Vietnam.”
Ngo Tho Hung, an urban air quality specialist and longtime Hanoi resident, said that just half of Hanoi’s deadly fine particulate matter found in air pollution, or PM 2.5, comes from inside the city itself.
“Fifty percent of those hazardous particulates come from outside the urban core, with common sources coming from emissions from informal recycling villages, and field burnings in crop rotations,” Ngo said. “The motorbike ban must be paired with regional and national-scale air quality management strategies to achieve substantial and lasting results.”
The cost of switching to electric bikes is also a significant concern for the city’s low-income earners. After the July 12 directive, the Hanoi Department of Construction proposed financial support packages for residents switching to electric motorbikes.
However, the proposed support of $114-$191 may not be enough to cover the cost of an electric bike, which can cost around $1,000.
“It’s just $200, but usually an electric bike costs around $1000,” Giang said. “It’s not just a vehicle. For some people, it is an asset. Not everybody will have enough cash.” Tens of thousands of people in Hanoi working for ride-hailing and delivery services are especially dependent on their motorcycles to earn a living.
A driver in Hanoi for the taxi and delivery service Grab said it was already difficult to make ends meet. “Some drivers can’t even earn enough to cover basic meals or support their families,” the driver said, asking not to be named.
Wendy, a manager of apartment rentals in Ho Chi Minh City, also said the change would place a burden on the poor. “I have money, so I can be flexible,” she said. “But for many poor people, if this policy happens, they don’t know how to live.”
Even if authorities can overcome the hurdles to implement the ban next year, enforcement will also pose challenges. A doctor working in Hanoi said he was “completely against giving up gasoline motorbikes”. “It will cause social chaos,” he said, asking for his name to be withheld.
Hanh Nguyen, a Vietnamese-born PhD candidate at the Australian National University, said it is hard to imagine the enforcement of the ban going smoothly.
“How will they implement such a major ban in a city of about 10 million people?” she asked, questioning how authorities would confirm which motorbikes are electric and which are petrol. “I can’t quite conceive of how we are going to implement it effectively.”
The planned ban has also sparked criticism of Vingroup, a conglomerate owned by Vietnam’s richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong. Vingroup has several electric vehicle offshoots, including VinFast, Xanh SM, and V-Green. Some netizens have suggested, without evidence, that the conglomerate is behind the ban.
“It’s a major concern that I have seen on social media in Vietnam,” ANU’s Nguyen said. Although there’s “no concrete evidence that VinFast was behind this policy initiative, there’s some risk of cronyism,” Giang added.
“VinFast will be the biggest winner of this policy… For the population, they will not be very happy.”