In Vietnam’s major urban areas, private motorcycles are the main means of transportation that are suitable for socio-economic conditions, current transport infrastructure, and people’s habits. However, in recent years, the negative effects of a large number and high density of motorcycles in urban areas such as traffic congestion and noise and air pollution have resulted in a gradual change in the public’s opinion of private vehicle adoption, especially motorcycles. The public has also urged the authorities to issue policies of limiting or curving the growth in the number of private vehicles powered by fossil fuels in big cities. However, in order to achieve the goal, other alternative means of transport should be proposed to encourage people to move to a more sustainable and eco-friendly form of mobility. The alternatives also should be consistent with the average income level as well as social characteristics. In recent years, along with the development of a highly connected public transport network, efficient and less-polluting vehicles including electric two-wheelers have been emerging, thriving, and drawing more attraction from Vietnamese people and policy makers. The spread in the number of electric two-wheelers in Vietnam’s major cities may be a sign of the transition to a more sustainable and less-polluting means of transport as an alternative to gasoline-powered motorcycles. In this paper, the authors aim to analyze the current road traffic status in Vietnam’s major cities, as well as shed a light on the transition to the greener and more efficient alternative vehicles to motorcycles in Vietnam’s urban traffic. Several recommendations for encouraging this vehicle type development are also important outcomes of this paper.

Currently, electrification of mobility could be considered as a sustainable solution for reducing oil dependency and encouraging environmental protection. In Vietnam, socioeconomic condition, current traffic infrastructure and users’ habit are main causes of the prevalence of motorcycles, especially in large urbans. A huge number and high density of personal gasoline-powered vehicles has pressured traffic infrastructure and this is claimed to be the major contributor to air pollution. With reasonable purchase price and low operation cost, electric two-wheelers (e-bikes, electric mopeds, electric motorcycles) could be seen as a promising solution for replacing gasoline-powered motorcycles. In order to promote this transition, supporting infrastructure such as charging facilities should be studied, investigated and deployed. Nevertheless, electrification of mobility is only beneficial to environment if the electricity used to charge EVs comes from renewable sources and not from fossil fuel generation. With high potential of solar energy, local consumption of PV generation for charging stations in Vietnam may provides a promising solution. This paper aims to research the trend of transport electrification and the feasibility of PV-integrated charging stations for electric two-wheelers in Vietnam as well as propose PV-based charging station solution at Electric Power University.

In developing countries as well as in Vietnam, infrastructure for two-wheeled electric vehicles is necessary but has not drawn much attention. Sustainable transportation in urban traffic requires sustainable solutions to first-mile/last-mile services which are essential for eco-friendly and efficient connection to the public transport system. Hence, electric two-wheeler charging stations which coordinate charging a large number of electric bicycles/electric motorcycles at public parking or transit hubs should be considered. In this study, the authors propose a novel approach to effectively allocate power to electric two-wheelers in a charging station which is interconnected with the distribution grid, a photovoltaic system and conventional loads of a building. With a three-stage of allocation, the proposed algorithm proves its effectiveness in reducing load variance as well as peak shaving and valley filling while relieving the complexity of solving multivariable optimal problems. The idea also contributes to increasing the penetration rate of both electric vehicles and distributed photovoltaic sources while alleviating adverse effects of these emergent factors.

In Vietnam and in other developing countries, two-wheeled electric vehicles are potential alternatives to gasoline-powered motorbikes. The growth in the number of Electric Two-Wheelers (E2Ws) requires a large power demand of charging load. In addition, the increasing spread in the appearance and penetration of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) power systems, with their intermittence and uncertain nature, poses technical challenges that need to be addressed. The coordination of PV rooftop operation and EV charging may be an effective solution to meet the emerging load demand from EVs, increasing solar power penetration while minimizing the cost of grid reinforcement or possible upgrades. In this paper, a two-level desired load profile tracking algorithm for PV integrated electric bicycles/electric motorcycle charging stations is proposed with the purposes of load leveling, valley filling, and peak shaving. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is an effective solution, significantly improving the load profile, especially when compared with uncontrolled charging and constant charging power scheme.

In Vietnam urban traffic, electric two-wheelers have emerged as a potential alternative to gasoline-powered motorcycles. Thus, charging infrastructure for electric two-wheelers is being in the front line of research and development. Moreover, high rooftop power potential and the encouragement of self-generation-self-consumption propel the need for photovoltaic-integrated charging solutions which in turn might pose technical challenges relating to optimal charging operation. In this work, an optimal real-time scheduling algorithm for photovoltaic-integrated electric two-wheeler charging stations is proposed. The algorithm aims at improving the total load profile as well as load leveling, peak shaving and valley filling. By leveraging receding horizon framework combined with grouping approach, the proposed algorithm can effectively perform optimal scheduling while covering the uncertainties of arrival/ departure and energy level variation of vehicles. The effectiveness of the algorithm is verified and analyzed through various case studies and operation scenarios.

In Vietnam, comprehensive measures are required to accommodate and encourage the potential development of electric two-wheelers in urban traffic and the rooftop solar power potential. In the case of PV-integrated electric two-wheeler charging stations, numerous vehicles charging simultaneously may trigger very high peak loads which adversely impacts other loads and the distribution grid. In this study, an optimal valley-filling algorithm for electric two-wheeler charging stations is proposed. The proposed algorithm can update the variation of available vehicles as well as the dynamic changes in the energy level of individual E2Ws at each time slot. The simulation results proved that the proposed method can effectively perform valley filling, significantly improving the total load profile compared to uncontrolled charging and average charging schemes.