Hanoi's Plan to Ban Petrol Bikes From Inner City Sparks Concerns

Some fret over hit to earnings, affordability of e-motorbikes amid push for cleaner air

- Nga Pham

HANOI - Almost every day, Mr Bui Van Cong, 36, rides around on his motorbike taxi ferrying passengers in Hanoi, many of whom are traveling downtown for work or school, with others running various errands.

He covers almost 100km daily, making around 500,000 Vietnamese dong (S$24.50) a day. This is sufficient for the bachelor's daily expenses and rental for a modest room in the city's outskirts.

But the common sight of thousands of motorbikes like his zipping across Vietnam's capital could soon be a thing of the past.

On July 12, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed a directive to ban all fossil fuel-powered motorbikes from Hanoi's inner city starting July 1, 2026, as part of a sweeping new effort to tackle air and water pollution in the capital.

For the city's 8.5 million people who own nearly seven million motorbikes, most of them powered by fossil fuel, the phasing out of these vehicles in the urban core comes at great cost for the average person.

"Our livelihoods are going to be affected badly," said Mr Cong.

It would be an understatement to say Hanoi residents rely heavily on petrol-powered motorbikes.

They use the motorbikes to take their children to school, deliver goods to the market, and transport a family of four and even five on one bike to their home towns in other provinces during the Lunar New Year holiday.

"This ban is a tax on the poor," said motorbike rider Le Van Thinh, 58, an army veteran and part-time deliveryman, pointing out that for millions of low-income people in Hanoi, motorbikes are their livelihood.

The decision to ban petrol-powered motorbikes has quickly become one of the hottest, and most divisive, topics of discussion among Hanoi residents.

Currently, about half a million such motorbikes travel within Hanoi's inner city every day.