Every week someone walks into our shop at 84 Phan Chau Trinh, points at an electric scooter and asks the same thing: “This one is quiet, so I can ride it through the Old Town, right?” It is a fair guess. The lantern streets are protected to keep out noise and fumes, and an e-scooter makes neither. But the rule was never written about noise. It is written about engines, and in Vietnamese law a battery motor on a scooter is an engine.

This guide explains exactly which electric motorbikes are allowed where, which hours matter, what the 2024 traffic law says about e-bicycles, and how locals actually see the Old Town with an electric ride parked just outside it.

Are electric motorbikes allowed? The short answer, vehicle by vehicle

The Old Town does not ban “electric vehicles”. It bans motor vehicles from its core streets during set hours, and lets bicycles, cyclos and pedestrians in. So whether your ride is welcome depends on what the law calls it, not on what powers it.

So, are electric motorbikes allowed in Hoi An Old Town? Only in the gaps between the restricted hours, and even then the lanes are narrow and full of people taking photos. Most visitors are far happier parking at the edge and walking the last 300 metres.

E-bike or e-motorbike? What the 2024 traffic law says

This is the part almost no English guide explains, and it is the whole answer. Vietnam’s Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety (Law 36/2024/QH15, in force since 1 January 2025) sorts vehicles into two families in Article 34:

• Motor vehicles (xe cơ giới) include the xe gắn máy: a two- or three-wheeler driven by a motor with a design speed of no more than 50 km/h. The law does not care whether that motor burns petrol or runs on a battery. A VinFast e-scooter is a xe gắn máy.
• Non-motorised vehicles (xe thô sơ) include the bicycle and the xe đạp máy: a bicycle with motor assistance, where the motor cuts out when the rider stops pedalling or when the bike reaches 25 km/h. That is the legal definition of a pedal-assist e-bicycle.

The Old Town’s rule is written around the same line. Non-motorised vehicles may pass, motor vehicles may not. That is why a pedal-assist e-bicycle sits on the bicycle side of the fence, while a scooter that moves when you twist a throttle sits on the motorbike side, however quiet it is. You can read the definitions in full on Thu Vien Phap Luat’s summary of Article 34 (in Vietnamese).

The guard at the rope does not listen for an engine. He looks at your feet: if they are pedalling, you are a bicycle.

The quick test for your own bike

Stop pedalling while riding. If the bike keeps pulling, or it has a throttle that moves it from a standstill, it is a motor vehicle in the eyes of the law and it stays outside during restricted hours. If the motor stops the moment your legs stop, it is an e-bicycle. Our pedal-assist electric bicycle is built this way on purpose.

Being on the bicycle side does not mean riding at speed through the crowd. On busy evenings the guards expect everyone on two wheels to get off and push, and it is the only polite thing to do on Tran Phu at 7 PM.

A separate question is whether you need a licence for an electric motorbike at all. That depends on its power and top speed, and we cover it in do electric motorbikes need a license in Vietnam.

Are electric motorbikes allowed at night? When the Old Town closes to motor vehicles

Hoi An has kept motorbikes out of its heritage core since 24 July 2004, and the schedule has been stretched over the years. The windows the city posts for the walking streets are:

Here is the nuance the timetable hides. When Tuoi Tre marked 20 years of the ban in October 2024, it described motorbikes as banned from 9:00 to 21:00 every day, with people who live and work inside the Old Town given flexibility to ride in and out between 11:00 and 15:00. In other words, the midday gap exists mainly for residents and deliveries. For a visitor on a rented e-scooter, the simple rule is: between 9 AM and 9:30 PM, park outside.

The two windows that actually suit an electric motorbike are early morning, before 9:00, when the streets are empty and the light on the yellow walls is soft, and late at night after the lanterns go off. Our longer breakdown of Hoi An Old Town vehicle restriction hours covers holidays and full-moon nights.

Which streets the rule covers

The restricted zone is the heart of the Ancient Town in Hoi An ward, roughly the grid between Phan Chau Trinh and the Hoai River. The main streets you will meet barriers on are:

• Tran Phu, the heritage spine that runs from the Japanese Covered Bridge past the assembly halls.
• Nguyen Thai Hoc and Bach Dang, the two riverside streets.
• Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, west of the bridge.
• Le Loi, Nguyen Hue and Hoang Van Thu, the short cross streets that link them.
• Cong Nu Ngoc Hoa and the Hoai River square in the evening.

In May 2023 the city added a new walking street on Phan Chau Trinh, about 1.5 km long. It opened from 17:30 to 21:30 in summer, and the plan announced at the time was to start at 15:00 from 2024, according to Thanh Nien’s report on the expansion. That second phase never arrived: as of September 2026 the barriers on Phan Chau Trinh still go up at 17:30, not 15:00. Only non-motorised vehicles are allowed on it during those hours. Our shop sits on this street, so if you are collecting or returning an electric scooter in the evening, message us first and we will tell you where to meet.

If you ride in anyway: fines vs. reality

On paper, riding a motorbike past a no-entry sign for that type of vehicle is a real offence. Under Decree 168/2024/ND-CP, Article 7, clause 6(b), the fine for a motorbike or moped is 2,000,000–3,000,000₫, plus 2 points off a Vietnamese licence. Nothing makes electric motorbikes allowed where petrol ones are not: they fall under the same article, because they are the same class of vehicle.

In practice the Old Town has always relied on guards rather than tickets. When the local urban management team cleared scooters left inside the walking zone in 2022, bikes were wheeled out to the nearest checkpoint and returned to their owners with a warning rather than a fine. That is how it usually goes: a whistle, a wave, and a request to turn around.

There is also the simple courtesy of it. Hoi An gave the lanes back to walkers twenty years ago, and many visitors now say they would like a full ban. Riding through on a silent scooter is legal outside restricted hours, but slow down to walking pace and give way to everyone.

How to visit the Old Town with an electric scooter

This is what we tell every customer who rents an electric motorbike from us, and it is how most people in town do it:

1. Ride to the edge. Head for a parking lot on the outer ring, such as the lots near the night market bridge, on Tran Hung Dao or along Hai Ba Trung.
2. Park with an attendant. Motorbike parking usually costs 5,000–10,000₫ per visit. Take the paper ticket and keep it; that is your receipt for the bike.
3. Walk in. You will need the Old Town ticket to enter the heritage houses and assembly halls: 120,000₫ for foreign visitors and 80,000₫ for Vietnamese, covering three sites of your choice.
4. Ride out after dark. Once the barriers come down, the ring roads are easy and cool.

Two habits save trouble with an electric scooter in particular. Do not leave it on the pavement unattended; Hoi An bans motorbike parking on Old Town pavements, and parked bikes do get moved. And switch it fully off when parked, so a child cannot twist the throttle of a silent bike that gives no warning it is on.

Where electric motorbikes are the best choice

Outside the heritage core there is no separate list of electric motorbikes allowed or banned: every road open to a petrol scooter is open to an e-scooter, and around Hoi An the electric one is often the better tool. The town is flat, the distances are short and most of the best rides are through villages where a quiet motor is welcome.

• An Bang beach. 5.0 km from our shop by the road through the rice fields, well inside any e-scooter’s range there and back.
• Tra Que vegetable village and Cam Thanh coconut forest. Narrow paddy-field lanes where silence matters more than speed.
• Thanh Ha pottery village and the riverside roads west of town.
• Cafés, markets and the night market on the edge of the Old Town, all reachable without crossing a barrier.

For longer days, to My Son or over the pass towards Da Nang, battery range becomes the question rather than the rules. Plan charging stops, or take a petrol scooter that day. Our comparison of bicycle vs e-bike vs motorbike in Hoi An helps you choose by route.

Which electric ride to rent in Hoi An

If most of your trip is the Old Town and the villages, the choice comes down to one question: do you want to take the bike through the walking streets, or park it and walk? Prices below are our current daily rates, checked in September 2026.

Rentals of 7 days or more are 10% off, and delivery to your hotel starts from 30,000₫. We take a refundable 2,000,000₫ deposit or a copy of your passport, never the original. The final quote is always confirmed by message. For the full electric fleet, see our electric bike rental in Hoi An guide.

Are electric motorbikes allowed in Hoi An Old Town? FAQ

Đọc bằng tiếng Việt: giờ cấm xe phố cổ Hội An. You can also watch our short TikTok on riding electric in Hoi An.