Selex Motors bet delivery fleets would swap EV batteries, then Hanoi's ban stalled

Makes smart electric motorbikes and runs a network of 'battery ATM' swap cabinets that delivery riders refuel in under two minutes, billed per swap.

That delivery fleets, not consumers, electrify first — and the two-minute battery-swap layer becomes refuelling infrastructure for Asia's 80 million petrol bikes.

US$2.1M seed (early 2022, Touchstone-led); ~US$5.5M raised in total from Touchstone, ADB Ventures, Schneider Electric Energy Access Asia and Nextrans

Founded by engineer Nguyen Huu Phuoc Nguyen, who argued Vietnam's 80 million petrol motorbikes would electrify through fleets first. Early 2022 it raised a US$2.1M seed led by Touchstone Partners with ADB Ventures and Nextrans to build both the bike and the swap network.

By 2023 its 'battery ATMs' were live in multiple cities and it supplied Lazada, Viettel Post and DHL per Nikkei Asia. In February 2024 Samsung SDI signed on as its first official Vietnamese battery-cell partner after a year of due diligence. By late 2025 it charged VNĐ8,000 (~US$0.30) per swap and targeted 300 cabinets by 2026 and 3,000 by 2028.

Still private and scaling as of May 2026 — but its regulatory tailwind stalled: Hanoi's July 2026 petrol-bike ban was cut to an 11-street weekend low-emissions zone and then postponed, leaving commercial fleet demand to carry the thesis.

Swap beats charge for commercial riders: a two-minute exchange keeps a delivery fleet earning, which is why logistics companies with net-zero commitments signed on before any ban took effect.

Owning the swap layer is an infrastructure position — Samsung SDI partnered for a year before signing, and the company prices the refill itself at ~US$0.30 per swap.

Vietnam's installed base is enormous: 80 million petrol motorbikes nationally and over one million electric already, the largest e-moto fleet in Southeast Asia.

The team understood regulatory risk and said so: Selex asked Hanoi for a staged multi-year roadmap, then the city indeed watered the ban down — validating fleet-led demand as the durable channel.

Infrastructure startups built on a regulation deadline own that risk: when Hanoi backtracked, Selex kept its fleet contracts and its Samsung cell deal — the B2B wedge was the right one.

As of May 2026 Selex remained private and was scaling its swap network toward its 300-cabinet 2026 target, with Samsung SDI cells and zero-interest driver financing via a finance partner. The policy picture inverted: Hanoi's ban shrank from a 26 sq km proposal to an 11-street, 0.5 sq km weekend low-emissions zone — and city officials postponed even that in May 2026. Competitors kept building anyway: LG ENSOL planned a 100,000-scooter Hanoi network, Honda launched dealer swapping, Vingroup's V-Green targeted 150,000 cabinets.