2026.03.28
In March 2026, it emerged that Vietnamese EV motorbike startup Dat Bike had received an additional $4 million investment from local securities firm Thien Viet Securities JSC. This brings Dat Bike's cumulative funding to $51 million. Most recently, in October 2025, the company carried out a $22 million Series B+ round led by F.C.C and Rebright Partners, and this new investment is positioned as an add-on to that round.
Dat Bike, founded by Nguyen Ba Canh Son, is the standard-bearer for Vietnam's homegrown EV motorbikes. The country has 77 million motorbikes in circulation, with about 3 million new units sold each year. As the company takes direct aim at the EV transition of this enormous two-wheeler market, its moves are an important signal for Japanese parts and manufacturing companies.
It is widely known that Vietnam is a motorbike powerhouse, but it is worth confirming the scale once more. With 77 million motorbikes in circulation in a country of about 100 million people, that works out to roughly 0.77 motorbikes per person. This means it is one of the most motorbike-dependent societies in the world.
Structural forces driving this motorbike market's transition to EVs are working simultaneously from multiple directions. First is policy momentum. The Vietnamese government has declared carbon neutrality by 2050 and, as a step toward that, has set the spread of electric mobility as a national goal. The capital, Hanoi, is moving forward with a plan to partially ban gasoline vehicles from entering the city center, which is the single biggest near-term policy driver accelerating the shift in demand toward EV motorbikes.
Next is falling EV prices. The spread of Chinese-made EV motorbikes has rapidly driven down entry-model price points. Many Vietnamese motorbike users are highly price-sensitive, and as the gap between the vehicle's purchase price and its gasoline-cost savings narrows, the economic rationale for switching to EVs strengthens. Also important is the growing EV preference among younger generations. Vietnam's Gen Z and millennials are environmentally conscious and tend to view EV motorbikes as a status symbol.
The "restriction on gasoline motorbikes entering the city center" that Hanoi is considering is the single most important policy variable for understanding the growth of Vietnam's EV motorbike market. If this restriction is implemented, Hanoi's roughly 8 million residents will effectively be forced to switch to EV motorbikes.
The current draft regulation envisions a phased implementation, designed to first restrict gasoline vehicles in historic areas such as the Old Quarter and then gradually expand the scope. Because it is a "phased restriction" rather than an outright ban, the impact on the market is expected to emerge gradually over several years rather than arriving all at once.
This policy context has a major impact on Dat Bike's business plan. The company aims to build a network of 100 stores nationwide and reach an annual production capacity of 100,000 units within 2026, seeking to establish its brand position and sales network before Hanoi's market undergoes a full-scale EV transition. Its manufacturing capacity has expanded fivefold over the past two years, as it advances ahead-of-demand investment in its supply system in preparation for a surge in demand.
The biggest influence on Vietnam's EV motorbike market is the rapid influx of low-priced Chinese EVs. Chinese-made EV motorbikes are in some cases priced at less than half of Vietnamese-made products, making it impossible to compete on price. So why can Dat Bike survive?
The core of its differentiation is "trust and pride in a homegrown Vietnamese brand." Many Vietnamese consumers hold a deep-seated distrust of Chinese products' quality, durability, and after-sales service. Dat Bike makes maximum use of this psychological advantage, putting front and center the brand story of "an EV motorbike made by Vietnamese people, for Vietnam."
Dat Bike is also building out its after-sales service system by establishing a network of 3S stores (sales, service, spare parts). This is the area where Chinese-made bikes are weakest, and the goal of 100 nationwide stores is directly tied to securing after-sales service competitiveness. The positioning is that even if it loses on price, a Vietnamese-made bike can win on total cost of ownership (TCO) and peace of mind.
Thien Viet Securities JSC, the investor behind this round, is a securities firm, not a conventional venture capital firm. The fact that Thien Viet's chairman cited "the global momentum behind green mobility" as the reason for the investment shows that Vietnamese financial institutions are emerging as funders of ESG investment and green-growth companies.
This is also a signal of the maturation of Vietnam's VC ecosystem. Vietnamese startups, which once relied mainly on VC firms from Singapore, Japan, and the US, can now raise capital from local securities firms and institutional investors as well. "Infrastructure-type startups" like Dat Bike, which hold assets with collateral value such as fixed assets, manufacturing facilities, and a sales network, are a good fit as investment targets for securities firms and bank-affiliated financial institutions.
Dat Bike's growth and the rapid expansion of Vietnam's EV motorbike market offer several concrete opportunities for Japanese companies.
First, there is parts and component supply. If Vietnam's EV motorbike market grows to a scale of 100,000 units a year, demand for parts such as motors, battery management systems, brakes, and frame materials will surge. For Japanese parts makers (brakes, suspension, electrical components, and so on), a domestic manufacturer like Dat Bike can be an entry point as a supplier. Second, there is technical support for manufacturing and quality control. Dat Bike is rapidly expanding its manufacturing capacity, but standardizing quality, process control, and improving production efficiency are areas where Japanese manufacturing excels. There is room here for technical consulting and support in building out production lines. Third, there is collaboration on charging infrastructure and energy management. Building out charging infrastructure is essential to the spread of EV motorbikes, and there is significant room for Japanese energy companies and trading houses to get involved in this area.
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Related article: The new phase of Japan-Vietnam cooperation: deepening in manufacturing and green sectors
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