The Law on 'Road Traffic Order and Safety' stipulates that motorbikes must check emissions at registration centres from the beginning of 2025 onwards.

"Motorcycles must carry out emission inspection" is one of many new regulations stated in the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety approved by the National Assembly and is to be effective from January 1st, 2025.

The emission inspection is carried out by the auditors of the registration centres. After that, the certificate will be issued to the motorcycle owner when completing the procedure.

Compared to specialised cars and motorbikes, universal motorbikes are not subject to technical safety inspection. Information on deadlines, technical standards as well as implementation guidelines have not been issued during this time.

Motorcycle emissions testing is not new in the world. For example, Taiwan -, the top motorcycle consumption market in Asia -, also applied this regulation nearly 30 years ago. The Taiwan Environment Agency stipulates that motorcycles must be tested for emissions annually after being produced for 5 years.

If the periodic inspection is not carried out, the fine for the offending car owner is 15 USD. If the car does not pass the test, the car owner in Taiwan must take it for repair and re-check within a month. If after 6 months the car owner still does not register, the car licence may be cancelled.

Inspections can be carried out free of charge at regular motorcycle dealers, with meters issued by competent authorities.

In Indonesia, only the capital Jakarta regulates motorbikes after the first 3 years of having to check emissions periodically every year. The fee per test is about US$ 2.5, according to Jakarta Post.

The number of motorbikes registered in Vietnam is currently about 70 million, of which more than 45 million are being used daily by people. In the transportation industry, along with cars and motorbikes, it is one of the largest sources of CO emissions to the environment.

With limited transport infrastructure, car prices are much higher than per capita income, motorbikes are still the main means of transportation for people, especially in big cities. Annual sales of new cars in Vietnam over the years average nearly 2.8 million units.

The above sales include sales of 5 major domestic motorcycle manufacturers under the Vietnam Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (VAMM) namely Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, SYM and Piaggio. If the sales volume of non-VAMM brands such as Yadea, VinFast, Kymco... and large displacement motorcycle companies, the sales are even larger.

In 2023, the members of VAMM sold a total of more than 2.5 million units. This is nearly 7 times the sales of the automobile segment (369,431 vehicles) including companies of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), importers and Hyundai Thanh Cong. Vietnam is currently the second largest new motorcycle consumption market in Southeast Asia after Indonesia and in the top 5 largest motorcycle markets in the world, according to Motorcycles Data.