Vietnam has announced plans to transition all buses and taxis in the country from petrol-powered vehicles to electric ones to help protect the environment.
According to a decision by the prime minister on green energy transition and emission reduction, from 2025, all replacement buses must be electric-powered, and from 2030, all replacement taxis must be electric.
The Green and Smart Mobility Joint Stock Company (GSM) has become the first taxi service provider to use electric cars in Vietnam. The company’s CEO, Nguyen Van Thanh, has confirmed plans to operate the service in at least five major Vietnamese cities and is currently in discussions with partners in Southeast Asia to expand its fleet to around 10,000 electric cabs.
In the first phase of the operation, GSM will deploy 500 GreenCars and 100 LuxuryCars in Hanoi, using the VF 5 Plus model. Thanh has claimed that the introduction of Green SM will improve the service quality of the entire taxi industry in Vietnam, similar to the positive impact that the VinBus electric bus system has had on the public bus sector.
The GreenCar service costs VND20,000 ($0.85) for the first kilometer, followed by VND14,000 ($0.6) per kilometer for the next 24 kilometers, or VND15,500 ($0.7) per kilometer for the VF e34 vehicle. The respective fares are VND12,000 ($0.51) and VND12,500 ($0.53) each kilometer for the rest of the drive. The LuxuryCar service will charge customers a fixed VND21,000 ($0.9) per kilometer for the entire journey.
The deputy chairman of the People’s Committee of Hanoi, Nguyen Manh Quyen, has praised the implementation of electric taxi services in Hanoi for contributing to the fulfillment of Vietnam’s greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments.
Nguyen Cong Hung, chairman of the Hanoi Taxi Association, has assessed that environmentally-friendly electric cars will become an inevitable trend, given the increasing cost of petrol. However, the lack of charging infrastructure and high investments are significant barriers to the transition to electric taxis.
The Hanoi Taxi Association has urged the government to create preferential mechanisms and policies to encourage the use of electric taxis. Many countries around the world have subsidized car purchase prices for bus operators and bus manufacturers since buses remain a low-profit public utility service.
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Source: Vietnam Insider