Opening the event, MoT Deputy Minister Le Anh Tuan highlighted that climate change and environmental pollution from vehicle emissions is an urgent problem. Many countries have considered the use of electric automobiles as a way to reduce greenhouse gas and reduce air pollution, he noted.

The official said that in Vietnam, the Prime Minister has approved an action programme on green transition and reduction of carbon and methane emissions from the transportation sector.

Accordingly, by 2040, Vietnam will stop producing, assembling and importing cars and motorbikes using fossil fuels, and by 2050, 100% of road motor vehicles and construction machines and vehicles participating in traffic will be converted to vehicles using electricity and green energy.

Pham Hoai Chung, Vice Director of the MoT’s Transport and Development Strategy Institute said that currently, Vietnam has more than 5 million automobiles, and their number is increasing by an average 13.3% per year. To date, 20,065 electric automobiles manufactured, assembled inside the country and imported from other countries have been examined and certified.

Along with two domestic companies - VinFast and TMT that produce and assemble electric vehicles (EV), many other companies have introduced some electric vehicle models for market feedback before assembling in Vietnam.

At the same time, the country has 72 million registered motorbikes with a growth rate of 9.3% per year, including about 2 million registered electric motorbikes, accounting for 2.7%. 

A network of charging stations has been developed, mostly by VinFast with more than 150,000 charging ports for electric motorbikes and electric cars.

However, electric buses now account for only about 2.8% of the total number of buses nationwide, which means there is large room for this mean of transportation to develop, especially when a green energy conversion roadmap for bus fleets in urban areas will be implemented from 2025.

In addition, electric taxis have also appeared in the Vietnamese market after VinFast launched its electric taxi fleet. By July 2023, there had been about 2,700 electric taxis operating nationwide.  

Tuan said that like many ASEAN countries, Vietnam has issued many policies to encourage and support the production and assembly of EVs as well as the use of electric cars. However, he pointed to many challenges for the transport sector to achieve its green transition targets, including a lack of charging stations and high cost of the vehicles.

Chung proposed four groups of policies to support the transition to electric vehicles, including encouraging the assembly and import of the vehicles, supporting users, and developing charging station infrastructure.

Dao Cong Quyet from the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) said that along with high production cost, the prices of electric automobiles are still higher than those using petrol, causing difficulties for both carmakers and users. The VAMA representative held that a balanced and harmonious approach to the transition to electric and green energy vehicles is needed to prevent market disturbance.

Patrick Haverman, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Vietnam underlined that Vietnam has great chances to promote the domestic EV production. He advised the country to speed up the implementation of fundamental policies such as developing charging station systems, tightening emission standards, and regulating sales targets for a number of EV manufacturers. Shot-term policies such as those related to parking can also help Vietnam achieve its targets, he said.

Haverman stressed the need to reduce the cost of EV by providing financial support for both consumers and businesses in the forms of tax reduction or soft loan provision./.VNA