Electric bikes are known to be used by students and older people, but more and more people in Hanoi have been using them following several fuel price hikes.

X-Men brand of electric bikes

Nguyen Thanh Huyen decided to buy an electric bike after the price hike in December. She said, "I used to go around the city after work but I started to have to limit my time on the street. To solve this problem, I sold my automatic motorbike to buy a electric one."

Another resident of the city said, fuel price hike also increased the prices of many other goods so that she had to find other ways to save on daily expenses. Many people have been buying electric bikes because the speed can reach up to 25km/h, and is cheaper and pollute less than other vehicles.

As a result, the number of electric bike shops has also sharply increased, with various styles and designs to choose from.

Huu, the owner of one of these shops, said, "I used to sell motorbikes but the business had got slow, so I switched to selling electric bikes. The prices range from VND15 million (USD720) to VND20 million. I can sell around ten per day. Before, the market only have one Chinese motorbike design that did not look very appealing. But now we have a better selection of designs from different places."

According to the advice of one electric bike lover, customers must pay extra attention to the battery capacity before buying a bike.