Electric models now account for about 32% of new motorcycle and scooter sales in Vietnam, and the growth is coming at the expense of Honda’s share. Sales of electric two-wheelers rose 90.5% to 973,247 units in the first nine months of 2026, out of a total market of more than 3 million, which was itself up 25.9%.
The tech news worth your time: 400,000+ professionals from Google, Apple and OpenAI read Techpresso, a daily email with the most interesting tech news and insights.
We may earn a commission if you sign up.
Honda is still the biggest seller by a wide margin, and its volume is rising. The change is in the arithmetic of share: a rival category is growing roughly eleven times faster than Honda’s 8.4%, so each quarter the Japanese maker’s slice of a larger pie gets thinner.
The January-September numbers behind the 32%
The figures come from Electrek’s Micah Toll, who reported them on November 1 using sales data from the Motorcycles Data site. That page could not be opened for this article, so the totals here rest on Electrek’s reading of it. The ranking he gives puts Honda first, VinFast second with sales up 152.1%, Yamaha third and Yadea fourth, which means two of the top four makers sell only electric two-wheelers.
The arithmetic holds together: 973,247 electric units against a market above 3 million works out to a little over 32%. For comparison, Vietnam News cited estimates putting electric two-wheeler sales for all of 2025 at about 700,000, so nine months of 2026 has already passed the full prior year by a wide margin.
Why Honda’s volume and share are moving in opposite directions
Other data sets show the same pull from a different angle. Sales by members of the Vietnam Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers, the group that includes Honda, Yamaha, Piaggio, SYM and Suzuki, rose 8.3% in the first quarter to 729,121 units, according to Vietnam News. Honda Vietnam sold 612,923 of those, about 84.1%. VAMM President Sayaka Arai said demand for personal transport remained high despite policy shifts and evolving technology trends.
In the second quarter, VAMM members sold 638,431 motorcycles, up 4.4%, and Honda held nearly 86% of that total, Vietnam News Agency reported. The catch is that VAMM figures cover only its five members. VinFast and Yadea sit outside the association, so its numbers miss exactly the sellers that are taking share, and the true market is considerably larger than the group’s count.
Honda has electric models of its own, including the ICON e:, CUV e: and UC3, and Yamaha sells the NEO’S. Even so, VinFast’s order book shows where demand has gone. In March, the company reported more than 135,000 orders and more than 93,000 deliveries, a monthly peak. Hoàng Hà, who runs VinFast’s electric motorbike business in Vietnam, said the surge pointed to a growing shift toward green transport.
The trend predates this year’s data. VietNamNet reported that VinFast’s electric motorcycle and bicycle sales rose 447% in the first half of 2025, putting the company third overall and first among electric motorcycles, with the over-50cc L3 segment up 197% and the smaller L1 segment up 89%. In the same report Honda’s August 2025 sales fell 13.4% from a year earlier to 154,599 units, a sign that the squeeze was already visible before the nine-month totals arrived.
Price tags show how crowded the middle of the market has become. VietNamNet listed Honda’s Vision at 31.89 to 37.29 million dong and the Lead at 40.29 to 46.49 million, while Yamaha cut as much as 15 million dong from its electric Neo, bringing it to 33 to 34 million. An electric scooter priced within reach of a Honda Vision is a different proposition from the premium electrics of a few years ago, and it helps explain why the shift is happening in volume rather than in niches.
Fuel prices and Hanoi’s ring road rules
Two pressures are pushing buyers. Gasoline prices climbed: RON 95 topped 30,000 dong, about $1.20, per litre in late March, which raised the running cost of every petrol bike on the road. And the capital is restricting them. VietNamNet reported in October 2025 that Hanoi would bar fossil-fuel motorcycles from entering Ring Road 1 beginning July 1, 2026, a measure the outlet called bold but necessary for cutting inner-city emissions.
Electrek’s 2025 report on the plan says the first phase covers the Hoan Kiem and Ba Dinh districts inside Ring Road 1. Vietnam News, writing in April 2026, described the July 1 rule as time-based limits inside the inner ring road with stricter controls expected later, so the exact scope of enforcement is still evolving.
The scale is worth keeping in view. VietNamNet called Vietnam the world’s fourth-largest motorcycle market and its third-largest for electric motorcycles, and a market that size makes a 32% electric share a large absolute number of riders. What remains unclear is whether Honda’s electric line-up can win back buyers who have already moved to VinFast and Yadea, or whether the company will lean on petrol models while the restricted zones stay small.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
The tech news worth your time: Subscribe to Techpresso →
We may earn a commission if you sign up.
More from Morning Overview
- Lake Powell sank to a record 3,517 feet, nearing the level that stops Glen Canyon Dam’s turbines
- Seven of Earth’s nine planetary boundaries are breached, and all seven are worsening
- The NSA says three phone features should be off whenever you aren’t using them
- Hurricane Hunter radar shows four warning signs that a tropical cyclone is about to strengthen, a University of Miami study found
