Electric vehicles in Pakistan; Can the trend continue?

Byline: Zubair Khaliq

Luxury vehicles in Pakistan are subject to more than 200 percent import duty, but if the vehicle is fully electric (EV), the import duty is significantly lower. This is a great incentive that is being offered by the government of Pakistan. In the UK or the US, the government offers some cashback or rebate on the purchase of EVs but what we have here in Pakistan makes things more enticing.

For example, a brand new German luxury vehicle that costs approx. 40,000 pounds in the UK will cost about 20 million rupees or more after being imported in Pakistan but currently, a luxury electric vehicle which costs about 60,000 pounds in the UK is costing about 15 million Rupees in Pakistan. For a certain class of people who can afford such vehicles, it is a great opportunity.

The first hurdle was that most people were not sure about how an EV would drive compared to the normal petrol or diesel engine luxury cars. When test drives were offered and vehicles started rolling in, this question was addressed and the answer was, 'EVs drive better than their internal combustion engine based counterparts. They are smoother, faster, practically maintenance-free (no oil, no filters, no tuning, no transmission oil) and are much cheaper to run (about Rs. 5-6/km running cost compared to Rs.20-30/ km cost of petrol engine based vehicles)'. The writing is on the wall; if the current incentives continue, luxury EVs will get imported. Currently, the market is dominated by Audi, but Mercedes EQC, Jaguar i-pace and even Tesla should see this opportunity and act fast.

EVs come with a home charging solution which generally gives them a range of about 250-300 kms. This is good for over 95 percent of daily commutes. Another good thing is that generally, homes in Pakistan have 3 phase 400 volts connections so the home solution can top up the vehicle in a very reasonable 2 to 4 hours, depending on how much it was driven on the day.

But there is a drawback. In Punjab, intercity commutes are quite common and with a very attractive network of motorways, it is quite enjoyable as well. For example, the Lahore to Islamabad commute, which is about 400 kilometres is quite common. Similarly, motorway travel to Multan, Sialkot and Faisalabad is also common. At the moment these commutes are simply not possible in EVs because there is no commercial supercharging network. Just imagine that you have a petrol engine based car and there is only one petrol pump, which is...