The dangers of electric motorbikes in Vietnam

When this trend started happening initially in Vietnam of people all converting towards electric vehicles in Vietnam I was all for it but not for the eco-reasons that a lot of people were cheering it on. Vietnam's electrical grid is still very heavily dependent on coal and oil so when you make a car electric and that is the electrical grid, there isn't really a huge (if any) environmental benefit to having electric cars.

There is a Vietnamese manufacturer or electric vehicles called Vinfast so I would guess that these were cheaper for the local people than regular petrol cars would have been.

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They look the same, feel the same as far as driving them is concerned, and because it doesn't have any CC's (no traditional engine) the entire CC limit that was imposed on foreigners without a Vietnamese license is concerned was eliminated as well - even though I am certain this is a technicality that will be eliminated at some point in the not-so-distant future.

All of these things sound like good things so far though, so why the attitude Gabe? Well a couple of really good reasons in my mind.

For one thing, and this is the main thing, these bikes are completely silent. This also sounds like a good thing until you consider the rather chaotic nature of traffic here in Vietnam. As a driver and even a pedestrian, you really have to keep your head on a swivel when navigating the roads here because the roads are just mayhem with vehicles going every which direction at all times of day.

When I am out on a bike or when I am simply walking down the street (or sidewalk for that matter) I have to use all of my senses in order to not be in danger of getting hit by something at all times.

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The roads here can seem quite daunting here, especially to newcomers as they will quickly discover that crosswalks / zebra crossings are meaningless paint here that are not observed by anyone, and it is a very common thing to be walking down a footpath and have a motorbike or 12 headed straight for you because for them, this is a faster route than taking the street.

With a completely silent "ninja assassin" sort of bike, you no longer have the sound of the motorbike engine to use as a warning and there have been many instances where I have glanced over my shoulder to "merge" with a street only to come a foot or two from nearly getting my clock cleaned by a motorist headed my way. While not as much of an issue with the cars, they are also nearly completely silent.

The second issue that I have with them is something that at first seems like a wonderful thing to anyone that has ever been shaken down by the coppers for not having the "correct license" for a motorbike they are operating. For the most part, licensing here in Vietnam is just some sort of formality where at times it seems as though they are just trying to keep an air or modernity about them because I can't imagine what the licensing procedure would consist of since everyone just kind of does whatever they want on the roads here anyway so what's the point of pretending to have rules?

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For the most part when you see roads in Vietnam it appears as though everyone is just allowed to do whatever they want and the only exception to this is police checkpoints that seem to be bribe-collection centers more than any sort of law enforcement. They are very easily detected and avoided as well. At the start of a month, right after everyone has gotten their monthly salary you will see them frequently and then unless there is some sort of APB or something, you almost never see them.

I think not having a license would have been some sort of deterrent for people to drive who are not old enough or have had some issues with accidents in the past but with electric scooters at least, you do not need a license to operate them at all since previously, the level of license necessary to operate any scooters was determined by the size of the engine, which is measured in cubic centimeters or CC's. With an electric scooter there is no combustion chamber and therefore no CC's to be measured at all. Therefore, you do not need a license to operate one at all.

What this means is that just anyone with a pulse can legally operate these things on the roads and especially with foreigners, this now means that we have taken an already dangerous road and made it even moreso by having zero restrictions as far as who can use the roads is concerned.

Then there is also the question of the fact that for reasons that I do not understand, a lot of the electric cars, for odd reasons, seem to be just catching on fire randomly.

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Normally, I would be a big supporter of anything that can make any situation in Vietnam a bit quieter, but when that increase in silence is something that ultimately makes it more dangerous on the roads here, I withdraw my support for it. I wish at the minimum that they would establish some sort of licensing equivalent for operating them based on their max speed or something like that, and that they would give them some sort of sound that it emits (not a beeping, dear lord PLEASE not a constant beeping.)

This country is wonderful, but it is dangerous enough without putting hundreds of thousands of unlicensed silent drivers on the roads.