Hanoi (Vietnam) (AFP) – Millions of exhaust-belching motorbikes zip through Hanoi’s narrow streets every day, fueling its chronic air pollution. However, authorities have backtracked from an ambitious plan to ban them in favor of electric two-wheelers. Vehicular emissions account for more than half of the capital’s pollution problem; on some days, it tops world rankings for hazardous air. The city runs on two-wheelers, the vast majority of which are powered by fossil fuels.
Vietnam’s Communist government announced a plan last year to bar petrol motorbikes from a 26-square-kilometer (10-square-mile) area in Hanoi’s historic center. In the face of opposition from riders and delays in building charging stations, authorities have since scaled back the proposal to cover just 11 streets spread over 0.5 square kilometers. Even this much smaller “low-emissions zone” would bar petrol bikes only on Friday evenings and some of the weekend, and its implementation is now in doubt.
This remarkable climb-down underscores the difficulty of spurring the transition to electric vehicles, even in an authoritarian country that brooks little dissent. “I think almost everyone opposes the ban,” said Phuong Anh Nguyen, a 24-year-old Hanoi resident who works as a researcher and rides a petrol motorbike. She recognizes pollution as a major problem and suffers from chronic congestion, which she blames on the air, but she is reluctant to switch to electric, stating that electric vehicles “require frequent maintenance while carrying risks I may not fully understand.”
This month, city officials declined to sign off on even the scaled-back ban, postponing the decision to June and throwing its planned July 1 implementation into question. “It’s rare, but it does happen,” said Vietnam analyst Nguyen Khac Giang regarding the decision by city authorities to reverse course. “The government tends to back down when their legitimacy is threatened… and I think that is what drives the loosening of the petrol bike ban regulations.”
Motorbikes are ubiquitous in Hanoi, with nearly seven million used by commuters, families, or weighed down by piles of goods. They outnumber cars roughly seven to one. Two-wheelers reign supreme across Vietnam, where public transport is limited and many cannot afford cars, making it the world’s fourth-largest motorbike market. Although it is still dominated by internal combustion engine bikes, the government has been gradually encouraging electric vehicle adoption, with Ho Chi Minh City also planning to phase out petrol bikes, though on a slower timeline.
When the Hanoi ban was first announced last July, manufacturers of mainly petrol bikes lined up in opposition. Companies like Honda warned of potential job losses at Vietnam plants, according to news reports. Local EV-maker VinFast has since seen a surge in sales, and some analysts speculate that the ban may have been partly designed to help the company. However, VinFast only sold around 400,000 bikes last year, compared to Honda’s 2.6 million.
The government has floated subsidies of up to 5 million Vietnamese dong ($190) for individuals switching to electric bikes that can cost upwards of 30 million. “That is not enough — especially for someone like me who has only recently graduated,” said 24-year-old Hanh Nguyen. “I would need greater support.” She also worries about the availability of charging stations, which have been slow to materialize despite government promises.
Other riders are deterred by reports of breakdowns and battery fires, and some Hanoi apartment buildings have banned e-bikes, according to state media. Authorities are working to make charging stations safer and are developing plans for battery swapping, which carries lower risks. However, building infrastructure takes time, as does weaning the public off fossil fuels.
The EU last year scrapped a landmark ban on new petrol and diesel cars set to come into effect in 2035, and India has set a 50-year timeline for transitioning to electric vehicles. The Hanoi People’s Council did not immediately reply to AFP’s request for comment. Nguyen Minh Dong, a former Volkswagen emissions engineer who now advises on electrification, called the rush to ban fossil fuel bikes in Hanoi “puzzling.” “The change requires a considerable amount of time to adapt due to infrastructure limitations,” he said. “The roadmap that Vietnam is aiming for is unsuitable.”
© 2024 AFP
