The HCM City Department of Transport has proposed the municipal authorities to permit a private company to provide the e-motorbike rental service in District 1.

Experts have said that HCM City should carefully consider the proposal about introducing an e-motorbike rental scheme in the city centre

If approved, the firm would lease 1,000 electric bikes worth USD680,000 in District 1. After three years, the plan would be expanded from District 1 to other parts of the city with 50,000 environmentally-friendly bikes.

The app will allow users to locate the closet vehicles in the district and unlock them using the QR code scanning function.

After using the e-motorbikes, users can park them at the designated area. A rental fee will be deducted automatically from their prepaid accounts.

The proposed fee is 3,000 VND (13 US cents) for the first 10 minutes. After that, users will be charged VND1,500 per five minutes.

E-motorbikes will be placed near bus stops.

In the pilot period, IOT Company will offer 1,000 e-motorbikes at 74 points in District 1. Each place will offer 12-20 bikes free of charge during the first one to three months.

Dr. Pham Sanh from the HCM City University of Transportation said that other countries encourage their citizens to use bicycles or go on foot to ease traffic jams. Currently, HCM City is trying to ease traffic jams for the city-centre area, so, he claimed the use of e-motorbikes would worsen the situation.

HCM City currently lacks cycle lanes, but it already has lanes for motorbikes.

Sanh added that this service should be still allowed to be launched in HCM City to diversify local means of transport but without being subsidised.

Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son said that many countries have successfully used the public bicycle model.