The Problem With Owning a Battery
A lead-acid electric scooter battery in Vietnam lasts 12 to 18 months before it needs full replacement, at a cost of VND 1,350,000 to VND 2,800,000. Lithium packs last longer but cost far more upfront — VND 8,500,000 to VND 12,500,000. Either way, the rider bears that degradation risk directly, as an unpredictable, lumpy expense that arrives whenever the battery happens to fail.
The Alternative Two Companies Are Building
VinFast and Selex Motors are both betting a meaningful share of Vietnamese riders would rather not own the battery at all. VinFast had deployed approximately 4,500 battery-swapping cabinets nationwide by early 2026, targeting 60,000 through partnerships with retail networks like The Gioi Di Dong. Selex Motors runs a competing network of over 120 swap stations, expanding through its VGX joint venture with Xuan Cau Holdings and the Vietnam National Petroleum Group — deploying shared swap cabinets directly at Petrolimex retail gas stations.
Why Gas Stations Specifically
Petrolimex's own retail network gives Selex Motors' VGX joint venture something VinFast has to build from scratch: existing, well-located, already-trusted infrastructure. Placing swap cabinets at gas stations riders already visit removes the adoption friction of asking people to learn an entirely new physical network, which is exactly the kind of practical distribution advantage that can matter more than raw cabinet count in a genuinely competitive swap market.
How the Economics Actually Work
VinFast prices its subscriptions at VND 175,000 monthly for a single-battery configuration or VND 300,000 for dual-battery setups, with individual swap transactions costing VND 9,000. The rider pays a predictable subscription instead of an unpredictable replacement bill — and the battery itself never has to be theirs.
What This Does to Repair Shop Economics
This model quietly restructures what a repair shop actually services. In the traditional fixed-battery model, the owner is directly responsible for pack health, balance maintenance and out-of-pocket replacement costs. In the swapping model, traction battery maintenance moves entirely into the swap cabinet's own automated diagnostic system — which logs cell temperature, internal resistance and charge cycles on every swap, isolating degraded modules before they reach another rider. The rider, and by extension the repair shop, is left responsible only for standard chassis maintenance: friction brakes, steering bearings, drive belts and tires.
A Named Comparison: Fixed-Battery LFP Ownership
Not every rider is opting into the swap model. Lithium iron phosphate packs, rated for 2,000 to 3,000 charge cycles and lasting 6 to 8 years, remain a genuine alternative for riders who prefer outright ownership despite the higher upfront cost — the swap subscription model and fixed-battery ownership are coexisting as parallel options, not one fully replacing the other.
Why This Matters for Independent Workshops Specifically
For an independent garage, this is a genuinely double-edged shift. It removes an entire revenue category — battery diagnosis and replacement — from the addressable service menu for any swap-subscribed vehicle. But it also removes the single highest-capital-cost, highest-risk service category from what a smaller workshop needs to invest in to remain relevant, letting them compete purely on the mechanical work — tires, brakes, suspension — where independent operators already hold strong market share.
