Hanoi

City Overview

The City of Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, and is home to approximately 7.7 million residents and is the second most populated city in the country (around 8% of the total population of Vietnam). It features an urban area roughly 320 sq. km in size. The city is also the cultural, commercial and educational centre of Northern Vietnam. Its economy is primarily based on tertiary sector industries, and has robustly grown in the last years (7.6% growth in 2018; 21.6% export growth in 2018) (Voice of Vietnam, 2019). The Hanoi Capital Region (or the Hanoi Metropolitan Area) is composed of the City of Hanoi and its adjacent municipalities, and is home to 16.1 million inhabitants (24 thousand sq.km).
It is estimated that 11.5 million trips are conducted each day in the city. Public transport is only estimated to account for 10% of the trips as passenger transport demand is met primarily by private motorized two-wheelers (Ahn, 2019). This mode share has essentially stayed at 10% since 2010 (Molt, 2010 as quoted in Allaire, 2012).

Hanoi e-mobility for last-mile connectivity​

The demonstration project will focus on boosting the ridership and effectiveness of the currently running BRT and the forthcoming metro rail. The project will be a win-win for both public transport and e mobility. A technical support team will design and develop vehicles that are tailored for the local context and operated under the oversight of the local public transport operator and the city of Hanoi.

Activities
Smart services, fleet bundling, E-scooter GPS positioning that support eco-routing will also be part of the project (SOL+ MaaS App). The demonstration project will have a high potential to not only make emobility attractive but also reduce the GHG emissions from transport and increase the share of public transport use.
The demonstration will be conducted in phases. For the first phase, there will be a trail with 50 shared e-scooter to test the sharing system to facilitate the traveling from BRT stop to a shopping mall and vice versa. There will be periodically assessment on the system to see what is good, what needs to be improved for the better pilot. After that the sharing system will be replicated to other locations in the city, probably connecting the Metro terminal with residential areas.


Vehicles Involved in the project
50%

Trends and Drivers

Overaching issues
Emobility Overview
Current State and Initiatives
Vehicle Integration
Charging infrastructure planning and technology
Business model development
EV promotion
Overaching issues
Vietnam is experiencing rapid economic growth (6% per annum) and urbanization, which is also coupled by a rapid increase in transport demand. Study estimates that if policy measures are not implemented, the GHG emissions from the transport sector will triple by 2030, from the current level of 32 million tons Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per annum. The International Energy Agency (IEA, 2018) estimates that 97% of the transportation GHG emissions are from road vehicles. Essentially, road vehicles contribute 18.5% of the total fuel combustion-related GHG emissions in Vietnam. The per capita CO2e emissions from transportation is estimated to be 350 kg/year (IEA, 2018). Transportation has also been implicated as a major source of urban air pollution in Hanoi (Clean Air Initiative, 2010).
In 2017, there were 54 million registered motorcycles, 1.5 million cars, 154 thousand trucks, and 1.1 million trucks in Vietnam. From 2007 to 2017, passenger car registration has been growing at a rapid pace of 17% per annum, while motorcycle registration has grown at 10%. The bus fleet is growing by 6% per year, and trucks by 14% per year based on the data collected by the ASEAN-Japan Transport Partnership (AJTP, n.d.). About 96% of the motorbikes in Vietnam belong to the following brands: Honda, Yamaba, Suzuki, Piaggio (Ha, 2017).
Emobility Overview
The uptake of e-mobility has been slow in Vietnam. According to the VIR (2018, as quoted in Pastoor 2019), only 1,229 hybrid vehicles and 7 electric vehicles (excluding 2-wheelers) have been shipped to Vietnam from January 2010 and March 2017. The MoT’s five-year plan aims to introduce 200 hybrid and 50 plug-in hybrid buses by 2020. It is interesting to note that there is a dedicated unit focusing on e-mobility within the MoT’s Department of Environment (Bakker et al., 2017).
Honda, which currently dominates the motorcycle market (74% in the first 9 months of 2018), recently launched a hybrid model called PCX (“E-bike brands“, 2018). Electric bikes from China are also imported and sold for 1,500 to 1,950 USD. There are also locally produced EVs such as Pega Aura (fitted with Bosch technology) which sell for approximately 630 USD (“E-bike brands“,). VinFast (see section 3.E) is aiming to capture a significant portion of the local market, as it opens its manufacturing facility in Haiphong. VinFast aims to produce 250,000 motorbikes within a year. Together with the launching of its manufacturing facility, it also launched its electric motorbike model called Klara which retails for 913 USD (lead-acid) to 1,521 USD (lithium ion) (“E-bike brands“, 2018). VinFast is also cooperating with PV Oil to put up 30,000-50,000 charging stations and battery leasing terminals throughout the country (Pastoor, 2019).
Current State and Initiatives
Currently, the local capacity for EV manufacturing, operation and maintenance is limited in Hanoi. There is no organisation that provides courses on EVs yet. Universities in Hanoi do not have formal degree courses in EVs yet but EV is partly included in engineering degrees (e.g. Automotive engineering). University of Transport Technology (UTT) and other universities in Hanoi are highly interested to collaborate to start with organizing courses (including e-courses) on EVs and organizing workshops targeting different stakeholders.
Vehicle Integration
The integration of shared e-scooters with buses and metros can result in easy route planning and payment through the Mobility-as-a-Service app. Existing apps are available for individual mode (e.g. Timbuyt for buses) while previous pilot projects on smart ticketing ended without further implementation (e.g. e-ticket system by Transerco with Viettel Group and MK Ticket Group). Under the SOLUTIONSplus, it is necessary to understand the functionality of the currently active application as well as lessons from the failed vehicle integration project and then develop appropriate Mobility-as-a-Service application for Hanoi city.
Charging infrastructure planning and technology
For the growing number of EVs in Hanoi, mainly Vinfast e-2 wheelers, a support on appropriate battery solutions, disposal and charging options are required. Some solutions have been explored in individual e-scooter and under SOLUTIONSplus suitable options for a shared system are needed. EV charging stations for public transport (E-buses) are limited in Hanoi. Besides a demo of ABB charging solutions in Vinfast E-buses, Hanoi city needs support on charging infrastructure planning and technology.
Business model development
EV is still too expensive compared to conventional vehicles for most of the Vietnamese population. The demo on a shared e-scooter system needs a good business case with the involvement of various stakeholders. Support on business model development on shared e-scooter is a need.
EV promotion
Vietnam/Hanoi has a potential of the EV market due to increasing imports as well as local production (Vinfast). Along with appropriate regulations and financial incentives, Hanoi needs supporting policies on communication, advocacy and promotion of EVs. A strategic planning on capacity building activities for various stakeholders on EV promotion is highly desirable. This can include disseminate cost-benefit analysis and reduced life-cycle cost , that shows market potential, environmental and health benefits.

Resources