The government sells electricity to EV charging operators at around Rs 40 per unit. But if you walk up to a public DC fast charger in any Pakistani city, you’ll pay Rs 80-150 depending on location and other arbitrary factors. The NEV Policy 2025 removed the price cap on what operators charge consumers, also known as market forces, so that spread is now legal, unregulated, and killing a crucial argument that makes EVs worth considering. Because the whole pitch for switching is the running cost. An electric two-wheeler costs roughly Rs 5 per kilometre versus Rs 15-18 on petrol. That’s the number any Pakistani thinks about, especially after the current petrol bomb. Once public charging climbs toward Rs 100 a unit, that gap closes fast, and eventually EVs become a nuisance. There are also fewer than 100 public charging stations in the entire country. The NEV Policy wants 3,000 by 2030, for a fleet of 2.2 million EVs across Pakistan. Here’s the pressing question: in a climate where the government seems to be taxing solar adoption, how long before EV adoption becomes a prey as well?
Pakistan isn’t unique in its heavy reliance on two-wheelers in the vehicle pool. Kenya is a useful comparison because it’s not a country anyone would describe as flush with resources, yet it doubled its electric two-wheeler market share two years in a row and hit nearly 15% by mid-2025, mainly by exempting e-bikes from VAT and pushing electrification into motorcycle taxi fleets. Similarly, Vietnam went from 10% to 21% electric two-wheeler penetration in a single year after Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City announced restrictions on petrol bikes in city centres. Neither country did anything Pakistan couldn’t do. Globally, electric models now make up 15% of new two-wheeler sales while Pakistan struggles at 1%. An insightful Substack last month put forth the case for a targeted petrol subsidy for bikers, ultimately concluding that by leveraging our 26-million-strong motorcycle fleet, we can reduce our 30% petroleum import bill. If we put electric charging through renewable sources, we can even put our stranded electricity to good use. Win-win?
Here’s the catch: the 2019 EV policy targeted 500,000 electric two and three-wheelers in five years. It got 50,000. The NEV Policy 2025 has better architecture, a fee on ICE vehicle sales to fund buyer subsidies, a proper implementation matrix, and quarterly reviews. But a Rs 65,000 subsidy at purchase evaporates quickly if monthly charging costs are only marginally better than petrol, and solar charging at home is becoming less and less of an option. Pakistanis don’t need convincing; they just need the numbers to add up. Solar already proved this as Pakistan imported more solar panels than any other country in the world in 2024because the bill comparison was obvious, and the decision was simple. The EV transition is the same problem: stop writing targets, fix what someone pays at the charging station, and put infrastructure where people actually are. The market will handle the rest.
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Complex economic data translated into simple, intelligible and decision-grade narratives by Brand Nib (shaping Pakistan’s data-driven visual economic narrative since 2020).
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EV bikes are good for girls, smooth roads, porche areas like DHA or metropolitan cities where you can use them, charge them, and no electricity shortfalls.
But in reality 80% Pakistan still in 1960s, where bikes use for cargo, triplets passenger on back, Dairy distribution, tube Wells and many different things.
Replacement of bikes from ev is expensive and unreliable.