Conversion pressure from more than 12 million vehicles
Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has nearly 1.2 million cars and more than 11.6 million motorbikes, not to mention a large number of vehicles from other localities circulating every day. Functional agencies said that road traffic generates about 88% of fine dust from traffic activities. Therefore, the construction of low-emission zones is expected to contribute to improving air quality, reducing congestion and promoting the transition to environmentally friendly vehicles.
According to the latest proposal, Ho Chi Minh City's LEZ area will be within Belt 2, limited by the routes Do Muoi - Le Duc Anh - Le Kha Phieu (old National Highway 1) - Nguyen Van Linh - Phu My bridge - Vo Chi Cong - Nguyen Thi Dinh - Dong Van Cong - Mai Chi Tho - Vo Nguyen Giap - Hanoi Highway.
The vehicle conversion roadmap is built in stages. From 2027, all buses operating in the LEZ area must use electricity or green energy. By 2028, taxis, contract cars, trucks and private cars wishing to circulate in this area must meet emission standards level 4 or level 5 depending on the type of vehicle.
For motorbikes, from 2029, vehicles circulating in the LEZ must meet emission standards of level 4 or higher. From 2030, the city will continue to tighten emission standards for vehicles using internal combustion engines, while promoting the transition to electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and vehicles using green energy.
The proposed roadmap is that by 2035, vehicles operating in the LEZ area will use electricity or green energy. Across the city, the goal of completing the conversion is set by 2040.
Accelerate coverage of charging stations and battery exchange cabinets
To prepare for a large-scale conversion process, Ho Chi Minh City is focusing on solving the problem of electrical charging infrastructure. Currently, the city has nearly 200,000 electric motorbikes, but the charging points and battery exchange cabinets do not meet actual needs, and most people still charge their vehicles at home or in apartments, posing potential risks of electrical unsafety and fire and explosion.
According to forecasts, by 2030, Ho Chi Minh City will have about 1.2 million electric motorbikes circulating. To meet this demand, the city needs to develop tens of thousands of public charging and battery exchange points.
Mr. Do Ngoc Hai - Head of the Department of Maintenance Management and Construction Exploitation (Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction) - informed that the whole city has installed more than 100 charging stations and about 5,000 battery exchange cabinets. The goal by the end of 2026 is to increase the number of battery exchange cabinets to about 20,000 cabinets, and at the same time continue to expand the charging station network throughout the area.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction has assigned relevant units to review bus stops, sidewalks, vacant land, and strips of land along canals and ditches to announce locations eligible to install electric motorbike battery exchange cabinets. Public passenger transport is identified as one of the main drivers driving the demand for electricity charging infrastructure in the coming time.
Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has more than 2,400 buses, of which electric vehicles account for nearly half. In the period 2025 - 2030, the city plans to convert an additional 3,011 diesel and CNG buses to electric vehicles, including 1,537 vehicles to replace old vehicles and 1,474 newly invested vehicles. This leads to a very large demand for specialized charging station systems.
In the taxi sector, Ho Chi Minh City currently has 18,613 vehicles, of which 13,124 are electric taxis, accounting for about 71%. However, the whole city only has more than 1,000 charging stations serving electric cars.
Utilizing bus stations to develop charging infrastructure
In order to create more investment resources, the Department of Construction has submitted to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee a project to exploit road traffic infrastructure assets by leasing exploitation rights.
According to the proposal, 19 bus stations and parking lots in the city with a total area of nearly 110,000m2 will be leased a part of the area to install electric car charging stations. In which, the expected leased area is more than 25,000 m2.
The lease of exploitation rights will be implemented through auctions for 7 years, expected to bring nearly 180 billion VND to the Ho Chi Minh City budget. According to the proposed plan, priority charging stations serve electric buses from 9 pm to 6 am the next day, using CCS2 charging ports and open control software so that many types of electric buses can share infrastructure.
Utilizing land funds at bus stations and parking lots to develop charging stations will contribute to removing bottlenecks in transport infrastructure electrification, improving the efficiency of exploiting public assets and promoting socialization of investment in the green transportation sector.
