The Latest: Under Circular 50/2025 issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, all unleaded gasoline must be blended into E10 biofuel for use in gasoline engines nationwide starting June 1.
To keep this transition on schedule, the Domestic Market Management and Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued a document on May 19 asking provincial and municipal industry and trade departments to strengthen “propaganda,” “reminders,” and “strict supervision” of fuel retailers until May 31.
The Details: The government has mandated that gas stations sell only E10 gasoline starting June 1, leaving citizens with no other choice.
After this deadline, market management forces will “handle” gas stations that sell fuel types not in compliance with the regulation.
However, many citizens have expressed concerns regarding the compatibility of E10 gasoline with agricultural equipment and various vehicles on social media.
A Facebook user named Phạm Thành Nhân posted about “standing there crying” after a local station sold only E10 gasoline before the deadline, claiming the fuel was “not compatible” with widely used agricultural machinery, including chainsaws, lawn mowers, water pumps, and generators.
Another Facebook user, “Trinh Ha,” shared that after filling their vehicle with “E10-95III,” the car initially ran normally but suddenly stalled on the expressway, with the preliminary cause identified as a “dead fuel pump.”
The user noted they found “quite a few people like me — fuel pumps dying after filling up” on online groups, though they added they “hoped it was due to the age of the fuel pump and not related to E10-95III gasoline.”
Furthermore, the Facebook account Nhà xe Minh Anh commented that vehicles felt “sluggish” after using the fuel, comparing the driving experience to “a long-distance runner with one blocked nostril,” and stating the “engine is noisier.”
The Background: Previously, E10 gasoline was piloted for sale in Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City in early August 2025, but the results were considered unfavorable.
Biofuel was initially expected to help reduce emissions, partially replace fossil fuels, and create an outlet for agricultural products. However, many large-scale ethanol projects in Phú Thọ, Dung Quất, and Bình Phước stopped operating after years of losses.
Experts noted that domestically produced ethanol is more expensive than imports due to low cassava productivity and high operating expenses. This situation has made it difficult for domestic businesses to compete with cheap ethanol from Thailand, forcing them to rely on imports to blend E5 gasoline, and resulted in a series of private ethanol plants falling into sluggish operation or shutting down completely.
Why It Matters: According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, E10 gasoline serves as the starting point in the roadmap for developing biofuels, with future plans to study the rollout of E15, E20, or blends with higher ethanol content once market and infrastructure conditions meet requirements.
The Việt Nam Biofuels Association argues that increasing ethanol imports from the United States could help improve the bilateral trade balance at a time when the United States is imposing reciprocal tariffs on Vietnamese goods.
The association noted that Việt Nam currently needs to boost imports from the United States, but the number of products that Việt Nam is “ready and able to import” is limited.
Because ethanol is one of the strongest products of the United States, which accounts for around 50% of global ethanol output, the association emphasized that expanding ethanol imports is “the best way to create room for importing ethanol from the United States into Việt Nam instead of relying only on the tool of reducing import tariffs on this product.”
They also stated that the move is “the quickest and most effective solution” to contribute to the government’s efforts to increase imports from the United States.
This shift occurs as Việt Nam recorded its largest trade surplus with the United States in January 2026, reaching $19 billion and surpassing both Mexico and China.
Lăng Nguyên wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on May 21, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights of the English translation.
