Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) on Sunday unveiled a comprehensive set of recommendations to electrify the country’s transportation sector, outlining key policy interventions to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and propel towards a low-carbon future.
‘Technology Transfer, Global Value Chain Integration, Export Oriented Production and Reducing Upfront Cost’ are the priority areas identified by the think-tank in its recommendations for the upcoming Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in September 2024, directed the government to present a new policy for accelerating EV manufacturing and increasing user adoption across the country. In response to the PM’s call for a robust EV policy, PIDE has presented its set of recommendations titled ‘Future on Wheels’ to support the development of an effective policy framework.
These insights are based on PIDE’s recently published two books on the automobile industry of Pakistan ‘Driving Backwards: What is Wrong with Pakistan’s Automobile Industry?’ and ‘Wheels of Change: Tracing Pakistan’s Automotive Evolution through Political Economy and Technology Acquisition’.
PIDE recommended devising a long-term policy for the development of the EV Industry in Pakistan with short-term goals for 2030, medium-term targets till 2035 and long-term targets set to be achieved by 2040.
These include 10% of all new 4-wheelers and 25% of all new 2/3 wheeler sales to be EVs by 2030 while increasing the shares of the former to 50% and the latter to 75% by 2040.
PIDE also recommended increasing production of EVs in Pakistan to produce 50% of all new 4 and 2/3 wheelers in Pakistan as EVs by 2035.
The policy recommendations by PIDE emphasized integrating the country’s automobile industry into the global value chain of automobiles, and EVs in
particular. —APP
