The Vietnamese government is thinking hard about trying to stop the pollution in the cities of Vietnam, as the population breathes in terrible air daily, from all the combustion engines whizzing around constantly pumping out fumes.

 

In an attempt to combat this, a complete ban on petrol motorbikes is mooted in Vietnamese cities. However this is going down like a lead balloon (or perhaps an unleaded one) with Japan, the main producer of the petrol powered motorcycles sold to Vietnam. In fact, in Vietnam, as Hoover is to vacuum cleaners, motorcycles are often referred to generically as 'Hondas', that's how ubiquitous they are in Vietnamese cities.

Japan has warned Vietnam that a ban on petrol machines will have a detrimental effect on the Japanese motorcycle industry and cost a lot of jobs. Reuters has seen communications from the Japanese embassy in Hanoi, asking the Vietnamese government to rethink the speedy timeline of the petrol ban in central Hanoi – currently standing at mid 2026 – just a whisker away. Japan is worried that this will not only affect the motorcycle industry but all the concomitant industries manufacturing motorcycle parts, and motorcycle dealerships too, and is requesting a slower phased roll out to give the electric motorcycle industry a chance to stay ahead of the game. They have requested two or three years to make the switch over to electric machines and away from petrol ones, partly to have time to build up the required charging infrastructure for the new bikes.

Pham Minh Chinh, Vietnam's Prime Minister, revealed the plan in July as an attempt to try and combat Hanoi's suffocating air pollution problem, and it will radiate out to other Vietnamese cities from 2028. 

The Vietnamese motorbike market is one of the largest there is, with a huge percentage of the population choosing motorised two wheeled machines to meet their daily transport needs. In fact 80 per cent of the 100 million-strong Vietnamese population use motorcycles as their transport of choice and Honda has 80% of that market. Not to be sneezed at, and a big impact if that market is lost.

 

Honda has already been working on electric motorcycles and has commuter bikes like the EV Urban, EV Fun and the E-VO already poised to ride into the hole left by the demise of the ICE PTW. However it is not the machines themselves which are causing problems, but the uptake is slow because people are worried about charging their machines, as the infrastructure is just not there yet.

There is a challenger to Honda too, the Vietnamese brand VinFast is poised to grab the e-bike market with sales up 55% as 2025 whirrs forward. There has been a big drop in Honda's share of the market since the petrol ban was brought in as people are naturally reluctant to invest in machines which may then be banned.

It's a tricky one as Vietnam does need to take a serious look at environmental pollution and the health of its citizens and take some serious action, but Japan is just worried about the economic consequences which may ensue and are showing signs of kicking in already. The answer may be a compromise, with the roll out being slowed down to allow manufacturers and suppliers to get into position for such a big change.

Any thoughts on this one? Have you been to Hanoi? What would you do?

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