Trip Planning & Practicalities
Motorbike Emissions Inspection in Vietnam: Roadmap, Levels by Bike Age and Hanoi’s Dates
About 6 minutes to read
Vietnam has set a national roadmap for emissions inspection of motorcycles and mopeds, and Hanoi is one of the two places where it starts first. Prime Minister’s Decision No. 13/2026/QD-TTg was issued on 2 April 2026 and has been in force since 16 May 2026. Inspection starts in Hanoi on 1 July 2027, and from 1 January 2028 bikes in Hanoi must meet emission Level 2 or higher. This article sets out the dates, how bikes are sorted into levels by age and the limits behind each level. The newest page read is dated 26 July 2026, and the section “What the pages leave out” lists what the pages do not say, including about rental bikes.
What the Decision sets
The Hung Yen provincial portal (6 April 2026), the Government e-newspaper (7 April 2026) and the Hanoi legal-information portal run by the city’s Department of Science and Technology (26 July 2026) report the same start dates for emissions inspection:
| Locality | Inspection starts |
|---|---|
| Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City | 1 July 2027 |
| Other centrally run cities | 1 July 2028 |
| Remaining provinces | 1 July 2030 |
Vehicles covered must complete the inspection within 18 months of testing starting in their locality. After that, the Hung Yen portal says, the authorities will check and handle violations as the regulations provide. The Decision encourages owners to test before the compulsory date and does not apply to bikes of the Ministry of Defence or Ministry of Public Security used for defence and security.
The Hung Yen summary also lists who does what. The Ministry of Construction is to draw up guidance on testing and certificates and an inspection data system. The Ministry of Public Security is to step up compliance checks and share vehicle data for managing inspection. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is to study a path to tighter standards. Provincial People’s Committees are to plan networks of test stations, may study low-emission zones or limits on high-polluting vehicles where needed, and are to mobilise resources to help residents, especially low-income ones, replace old bikes that do not meet the standard.
The sources differ on one point. The Hung Yen summary says localities with suitable conditions may set an earlier start, while the Government e-newspaper and Hanoi portal texts attach that option only to the remaining provinces. The pages do not settle whether Hanoi could begin before 1 July 2027.
Motorcycles and mopeds under the Decision
The Decision treats the two as different classes. According to the Hanoi portal, a moped is a two- or three-wheeled motor vehicle with a design speed of no more than 50 km/h and, if it has a combustion engine, a capacity of no more than 50 cm3, or, if electric, a motor of no more than 4 kW. A motorcycle is any other two- or three-wheeled motor vehicle designed for roads (a three-wheeler must weigh no more than 400 kg unladen). By these definitions a petrol bike with an engine above 50 cm3 is not a moped, so it falls under the motorcycle schedule. For 50cc bikes, see 50cc Motorbike Rental in Hanoi for Beginners: What to Know.
Emission levels by production year
The Decision assigns each bike a level by the date it was produced or imported:
| Level | Motorcycles | Mopeds |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Before 2008 | Before 2016 |
| Level 2 | 2008 to end of 2016 | 2017 to 30 June 2027 |
| Level 3 | 2017 to 30 June 2026 | None listed |
| Level 4 | From 1 July 2026 | From 1 July 2027 |
Reading the table, a motorcycle produced in 2012 is assigned Level 2 and one produced in 2019 is assigned Level 3, while a moped produced in 2019 is assigned Level 2. The text gives mopeds “before 2016” and “from 2017”, so a moped made in 2016 has no stated level. The same 2008 and 2016 cut-off years appear in Hanoi’s low-emission zone roadmap, which for the pilot period encourages limiting motorcycles made before 2008 and mopeds made before 2016 (Government e-newspaper, 17 June 2026).
The limits behind each level
Under Circular 92/2025/TT-BNNMT of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the national emission regulation for motorcycles and mopeds has four levels of maximum limits. The Government e-newspaper report of 7 April 2026 reproduces them for spark-ignition engines.
| Level | CO (% by volume) | HC, four-stroke (ppm) | HC, two-stroke (ppm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4.5 | 1,500 | 10,000 |
| 2 | 4.5 | 1,200 | 7,800 |
| 3 | 3.5 | 1,100 | 2,000 |
| 4 | 2.0 | 1,000 | 2,000 |
Levels 1 and 2 share the same carbon monoxide (CO) limit, and for two-stroke engines Levels 3 and 4 share the same hydrocarbon (HC) limit.
Hanoi: the 2028 minimum and the low-emission zone
From 1 January 2028, motorcycles and mopeds in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City must meet emission Level 2 or higher. The Decision treats Hanoi’s low-emission zones separately: bikes entering them must meet the emission rules set by a Hanoi People’s Council resolution. Hanoi’s low-emission zone roadmap, reported on 17 June 2026, has the city begin emissions testing in 2027 under the national roadmap and gradually restrict vehicles that fail the standard in the zone. For 2028 to the end of 2029, it says the city will not allow petrol motorcycles and mopeds that do not reach Level 3 or higher to circulate in the zone, which by then covers the whole area inside Ring Road 1. The zone’s Level 3 threshold is stricter than the citywide Level 2 minimum. For choosing a bike, see Motorbike Rental Hanoi: How to Choose the Right Bike.
What the pages leave out
No Decision page gives inspection fees, test-station locations, the retest interval, how long a certificate lasts, penalty amounts for missing the inspection, or a calendar date for the end of the 18-month window; the only intervals found are in the older-rules summary below. None says whether electric bikes are tested, how a bike’s level is verified, or how the citywide Level 2 minimum and the zone’s Level 3 requirement apply to a given bike. None says how the rules apply to rental fleets or tourists’ bikes, or who is responsible for a rented bike, the owner or the renter. The pages also do not say whether a Level 1 bike, meaning a motorcycle made before 2008 or a moped made before 2016, can keep running in Hanoi from 2028 by meeting Level 2 limits, so no bike is described here as banned. The Decision sorts bikes by production or import year, so a bike’s year of manufacture is the detail that sets its level. A separate pre-rental check of the bike is covered in Scooter Rental Hanoi: How to Check the Bike First – Complete Pre-Rental Inspection Guide.
One other page, a summary of rules from 2025, adds detail the Decision pages do not repeat. A Nghe An commune portal page dated 19 May 2026, summarising rules from 1 January 2025, describes age-based inspection under Circular 47/2024/TT-BGTVT: no station visit for bikes up to five years from production, then a visit every two years for bikes over 5 and up to 12 years old, and every year over 12 years. It adds that testing was to follow a later roadmap. Because no Decision 13/2026 page repeats these intervals, they are not confirmed as current.
Sources checked
- Hung Yen provincial government portal, 6 April 2026: summary of Decision 13/2026/QD-TTg. Decision summary
- Government e-newspaper (Chinhphu.vn), 7 April 2026: start dates, levels and limit table. Inspection report
- Hanoi legal-information portal (Department of Science and Technology), 26 July 2026: definitions and Hanoi dates. Hanoi portal page
- Government e-newspaper (Chinhphu.vn), 17 June 2026: Hanoi low-emission zone roadmap. Zone roadmap report
- Bach Ngoc commune portal, Nghe An, 19 May 2026: earlier summary of inspection intervals. Commune portal summary
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