EV sector urged to shift from ambition to action

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LAHORE: The second Electric Vehicles (EV) Conference held in Lahore on Saturday, gathered industry leaders, policy makers, financiers and climate supporters to accelerate the debate around Pakistan’s EV landscape, which promoted the promise of this sector.

According to a statement issued here, the conference was organized by the Sabr Action Center (CAC) and Pakovo and was organized by the Bank of Punjab. The program has marked an important step in aligning public and private sector efforts to promote EV and promote localization in the country.

The head of Investment Banking, FI and Corporate Banking Central in Bank of Punjab Omar Khan expressed confidence in his important speech about the possibility of EV in Pakistan and the possibility of infrastructure related to it.

“According to experiments in several countries, the most important pressure to adopt EV will come with the government’s solid support in the form of subsidy and tax credit,” he said.

He added: “Liquidity and credit rise are available for climate finance and EV projects, which will have to be accessed with the right pitch to international development financial institutions.”

In his keynote, Dr. Azam Khan [director of Integrated Engineering Centre of Excellence (IECE), University of Lahore] Introducing a new initiative to promote EV -related education, cooperation and policy reforms. He identified the opportunities lost in the past years when Pakistan’s economic difficulties prevented the budget allocation in key EV measures.

Discussions have revealed that while global EV sales have increased by about 40 % between 2023 and 2024, Pakistan’s market is low. Nevertheless, the mood was cautiously hopeful as many developments indicated the pace. Among them, Divo’s diesel buses were planned to convert with EV on short interstitial routes between cities near Lahore, such as Sialkot.

During the first panel, Sheriar Hassan of Divo said, “Our goal is that in the next two years, we will convert our entire short route fleet into electricity,” he said during the first panel, Divyar’s Sheriar Hassan said that work was already underway with financial support with the Bank of Punjab. However, distribution companies (disco) face serious capacity and burden management challenges, which are currently facing unbearable capabilities through long travel. Hassan noted that while Divo successfully launched his first electric bus pilot project between Lahore and Sialkot, which would require time and significant investment, such as a major interstate network – spread from Islamabad to Lahore.

Panelists also highlighted that Pakistan has a strong opportunity to jump to become a regional EV manufacturing center. Localization emerged as a central theme with Naaman Alvi of Avi Motors, which indicated that the increase in sales of 1.4 million units-two-wheelers in 2024 was widely operated by the local production of 70 cc and 125 cc model.

He called for similar localization efforts for the EV parts, starting with plastic components, which is 15 to 20 percent of the cost of vehicles, and emphasized that the adoption of large -scale EVs depends on the achievement of the economies.

Alvi also shared insights with the experience of Avi Motors, note that 20 % of EV consumers in Pakistan are women, while compared to less than 1 % in traditional automotive markets, which highlighted the importance of women’s education and awareness campaigns.

In his remarks, Salia Hassan, a prominent DFML official, challenged the misconception that EVs are luxurious things. “This is the decision of the utility – you invest in the EV because you invest in a change in lifestyle,” he said.