Vietnam's Rise of Electric Taxis Drive Country Towards Net-Zero

TaiwanPlus News

Vietnam's ambitious electric taxi goals are driving the country toward net-zero carbon. TaiwanPlus rides some EV taxis in Ho Chi Minh City to meet the drivers steering the green transition.

Transcript

00:00Vietnam's busy streets with its honking cars and motorcycles are in transition, away from

00:07petrol cars towards electric vehicles, or EVs, to cut down on pollution.

00:12The government has been doubling down on this green goal, aiming for all new taxis to be

00:17electric from 2030 onwards, with the hopes that all cabs in the country will be EVs by

00:242050.

00:27Ahead of the game is this fleet of bright blue cabs, from the country's first electric-only

00:33taxi firm GSM, owned by the same group behind VinFast, Vietnam's EV giant.

00:39All of GSM's cabs are VinFast cars, the company that first made global headlines when its

00:45stock skyrocketed after being listed in New York's Nasdaq.

00:49They've since plunged, and VinFast has been relying on subsidiaries, with 70 percent of

00:55its deliveries going to GSM.

00:58Domestically, GSM is trying to carve its own share of a competitive ride-hailing market

01:05that's dominated by the regionally popular Grab platform.

01:09Now users can call for the EV taxi by picking up the phone and dialing, or using this app.

01:16And it's also easier for the cab drivers, like Mr. Mai, to earn with GSM.

01:21As with other taxi firms, GSM has a quota he must reach to get his base salary.

01:27But Mr. Mai says it's simpler for drivers to hit GSM's quota than those of traditional

01:33firms.

01:34For Mr. Mai, the biggest downside is having

01:44to charge the car.

01:46On a full battery, he can only take about 15 riders if they're going short distances.

01:52He says normally in a day, he'll need to charge his car twice for 40 minutes each.

01:57But because charging ports are still relatively rare in Ho Chi Minh City, sometimes with long

02:03lines of EV drivers waiting to charge, he says the wait time can get up to two or even

02:08three hours.

02:10Mr. Toan here has been waiting for 30 minutes just for a free port to charge his car, but

02:16this is pretty normal?

02:17Yes, it's normal to wait for a car to be charged.

02:22Binh Phat says it has 150,000 of these charging ports across Vietnam, but given how quickly

02:29demand for EVs is growing, urban centers like Ho Chi Minh City are going to need more.

02:36And especially as foreign competitors like China's top EV maker BYD enter Vietnam's market.

02:43Right now, Binh Phat has a monopoly on the infrastructure and their ports can only charge

02:48Binh Phat cars.

02:50This month, the government will consider subsidizing electricity prices for charging stations to

02:56keep Vietnam on track with other advanced economies aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050.

03:04Reaching Vietnam's green goals will take time, especially as the government eyes even

03:09larger-scale projects like electric buses in the future.

03:13But with thousands of these EV taxis already on the street, Vietnam is off to a strong start.

03:20Yixin Chen, Alison Nguyen and Joyce Sun in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for Taiwan Plus.

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