Ho Chi Minh City – Hanoi resident Mai often wakes up to cover the air pollution in the Vietnamese capital with thick fog.

“The pollution in Hanoi is shocking,” Mai told Al Jazeera, requesting to mention it in her name.

Mai said the main culprit was “exhaust smoke from motorcycles and buildings being built.”

The gasoline two-wheeler has about 7 million motorcycles crowded the streets of Hanoi, a big part of the city’s often ranking of the worst air quality in the world.

Now, authorities are planning to ban downtown vehicles.

In July, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh issued Directive 20, which will ban all cars and motorcycles from driving at 1 Hanoi Ring Road by July 1, 2026.

Mai, who already owns electric motorcycles, supports the plan but says Hanoi residents have been split in the ban.

“People have two objections,” she said. “Half agree to change, half not.”

Observers question the feasibility of enforcing the ban in such a tight time frame, pointing to limited public transport, fragmented power grids, and the lack of charging infrastructure in cities, in addition to the logistical challenges of blocking millions of drivers.

Some fear that the change will hit Hanoi’s poorest residents’ hardest and see the initiative as an excuse to strengthen the country’s largest conglomerate, Vinfast, Vinfast.

“A lot of people think it is an industry and development policy that is masquerading as environmental protection policies,” Hanh Nguyen, a Vietnam-born PhD candidate at the Australian National University, told Al Jazeera.

Nguyen added, “That’s very worrying considering the charge for 6 million cars per day.”

“This could be a huge pressure on Vietnam’s electricity supply and our supply is not consistent, especially during the hot summer.”

The July deadline for banning petrol motorcycles in central Hanoi is part of a broader push to transport fossil fuels.

Directive 20 states that the ban will be extended to Ring Road 2 in Hanoi from January 2028 to January 2028 and to Ring Road 3 in 2030 to 2030, with tighter controls on petrol vehicles.

Officials are studying the introduction of a similar ban by Vietnam’s economic powerhouse Ho Chi Minh City, where the Ministry of Transport has targeted 30% of cars at 22% of the country to generate electricity nationwide by 2030.

Although air pollution is a major concern for experts and residents, many observers are shocked by the pressing deadline for the ban.

“My first reaction was that it was a hurry,” Nguyen said.

“I’ve seen a lot of reactions and usually they aren’t really positive reactions because of the sudden nature of the announcement.”

Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnam-born visitor of Singapore’s Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute, noted that electric vehicles have insufficient charging infrastructure, limited public transport and fears of unstable electricity supply in northern Vietnam.

“If you look at the overall situation, it’s a mess,” Giang told Al Jazeera.

“It’s really hard to achieve it in a very short time.”

He noted that Giang pointed out that in the summer of 2023, the power outage hit Hanoi and the surrounding northern provinces, forcing factories to close and “caused a lot of unrest for the population.”

“It’s a very fast green shift – without proper preparation, I think it will cause problems for Vietnam’s electricity system.”

Although the World Health Organization says that air pollution in Vietnam is a major problem – killing 70,000 people a year, some experts say the solution to the problem is a more comprehensive approach than the government has taken.

Tho Hung, a Urban Air quality expert and a long-time Hanoi resident, said only half of the deadly particulate matter found in air pollution or PM 2.5 in Hanoi comes from the city itself.

“50% of these dangerous particulate matter comes from outside the urban core, and common sources come from informal recycling of emissions from villages, as well as field combustion in crop rotations,” the NGO told Al Jazeera.

“The motorcycle ban must be paired with regional and national-scale air quality management strategies to achieve substantial and lasting results.”

Another key issue is the cost of switching to electric bikes for low-income earners in the city.

Following the July 12 directive, the Hanoi Ministry of Construction proposed a proposed financial support package for residents who are turning to electric motorcycles.

Under these proposals, the city will also cover 100% of the registration and licensing issuance fees for new electric motorcycles, in addition to financial support from 3 to 5 million Vietnamese directors (114-$191).

“It’s only $200, but it’s usually an electric bike that costs about $1,000,” said Giang of Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute.

“It’s not just a car. For some people, it’s an asset. Not everyone has enough cash.”

Thousands of Hanoi people work for rides and delivery services in particular on their motorcycles to make a living.

A driver in Hanoi said it was already difficult to make ends meet, a rush to buy taxi and delivery services.

The driver told Al Jazeera that “some drivers can’t even make enough money to cover basic meals or raise their families.”

Wendy, a Winch City apartment rental manager, asked to mention her English name in English, and he also said the change would burden the poor.

“I have money, so I can be flexible,” she told Al Jazeera. “But for many poor people, if this policy happens, they don’t know how to live.”

Even if authorities can overcome the obstacles to the ban next year, law enforcement can pose a challenge.

A doctor who works in Hanoi said he is “totally opposed to giving up gasoline motorcycles.”

He told Al Jazeera that it would lead to “social chaos” and demanded that his name be withheld.

Anu’s nguyen said it was hard to imagine the implementation of the ban going smoothly.

“How will they impose such a major ban in cities with about 10 million people?” she said, questioning how authorities will confirm which motorcycles are electric and which are gasoline.

“I can’t quite think about how we’re going to implement it effectively.”

Criticism of the motorcycle ban is also focused on Vingroup.

Founded by Pham Nhat Vuong, the richest man in the country, Vingroup has multiple electric vehicle branches – electric vehicle and motorcycle brand Vinfast, electric taxi and ride service Xanh SM and electrical charging infrastructure company V-Green.

V-Green announced in July that it will expand to Indonesia and the Philippines and plans to increase the number of charging stations to six times over the next three years.

Since the news of the ban, netizens have criticized Vingroup, suggesting there is no evidence that the group is behind the ban.

“This is a major issue I see on Vietnamese social media,” said Anu’s Nguyen.

Although “there is no concrete evidence that Vinfast is behind this policy initiative, there is still a risk of nepotism.”

“This will require a lot of capital from the population itself,” he added.

“Vinfast will be the biggest winner in this policy… They won’t be happy for the population.”