A Billionaire Is Bringing Electric Motorbikes to Vietnam

Vietnamese billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong wants to help his nation’s 96 million motorbike riders go green, replacing their noisy gas guzzlers with electric scooters. VinFast, a subsidiary of Vuong’s Vingroup JSC, has a new $3.5 billion, 36.1 million-square-foot factory in Haiphong, where it’s building e-scooters, electric buses, and electric cars. Vuong is betting Vietnam’s growing middle class, increasingly concerned about pollution, will embrace his electric revolution.

Motorbikes are vital to Vietnam’s economy and culture. In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the density of bikes at rush hour makes the street barely visible. Even sidewalks overflow with mopeds, which often transport as many as five people and goods including slaughtered hogs and refrigerators.