Electric Vehicles are the vehicles which are powered by the electricity through an internal rechargeable battery system or an extravehicular source of electricity. These vehicles are different from gasoline vehicles which have nothing to do with the electricity or charging system. EVs were introduced most likely in the late 90’s and came to display in the early 2000 in US and European countries. The purpose of introducing EVs was to give the world an environment-free and cheaper means of transport in terms of fuel and energy consumption. And now, it has become the need of the hour to adapt and adopt EVs as early as possible to give help the environment breathe again.
Electric Vehicles have become vital and the need of the hour across the globe. The world is already suffering from a huge scarcity of petrol and diesel. This causes the petrol producing countries to supply it at an exorbitantly high rate. The prices of petroleum products are historically sky-high. At the same time, the gasoline vehicles have proved to be disastrous for the world’s environment too and affecting our universe drastically. The world’s increasing pollution, global warming and affected greenhouse effects are demanding us to move forward and get rid of the poisonous objects and replace them with more effective and environment-friendly ones. So, shifting from gasoline vehicles to electric ones also have become imperative.
It has been almost more than ten years since the electric vehicles started to appear in the global market, and they got an astounding rise in their sales after 2011. The importance of Electric Vehicles (EVs) has been acknowledged globally and the countries: China, Germany, US, UK, France and some other European countries are not only producing EVs but also exporting them to other countries in the world. The demand of using EVs in different countries, more importantly in US, Germany and across Europe is consistently rising. Despite some countries like US and Germany produce EVs, they have to import EVs too to meet the demand of the people in their countries. This gives opportunity to global exporters to step in.
In the race of producing and exporting EVs, Germany, Belgium, China, South Korea, and US are competing each other whereas Slovakia and Czech Republic are also in the race with a bit of lower pace like few more European countries. Germany has proved to be the biggest exporting country of the EVs while China is representing the Eastern region as the biggest supplier of the product. India the neighbouring county of Pakistan has risen in the world of technology and aims to start export of the EVs soon. Mahindra Group of India has launched XUV 400, an electric compact SUV at reasonable price for the locals. Here the question arises where Pakistan is standing in this regard; whether Pakistan will be able to produce enough EVs so it can export to other countries, whether Pakistan will bring unique and extra-ordinary revolution which will make its EVs worthier and more enchanting to export for importing countries. The market of EVs is extending gradually and this is the time for Pakistan to make the most of the demand of the EVs and take major initiatives.
Pakistan in the list of EVs exporters found nowhere and it seems if the country kicks off producing enough number of EVs and promoting them properly internationally, this list might give Pakistan some space to fit in as EVs exporting country. Pakistan needs to highlight the importance of the safer environment, eradication of global warming, and reduction of pollution to its peoples too. So that the local and international brands produce EVs for locals as well and sustain here until they Pakistan rises as an exporter of the EVs. Pakistan must build ideal paves and terrains for the EVs so that the locals find ease and comfort in preferring electric vehicles over gasoline ones. The question is how can this be done? Has any initiative been taken by the county? Has any company been contacted to produce EVs for Pakistan to export?
The government of Pakistan, in 2020, stepped forward and took some initiatives to promote the production of electric vehicles by providing tax incentives to the producers. They stressed and encouraged the use of EVs and hybrid vehicles in the country. But the manufacturers have not given a favourable response to this initiative of the government because of the limited market. This is a solvable issue. The local market can also be expanded through proper strategy and execution. The people here should have been given awareness at a large scale on the importance of environment-friendly bikes, cars, and other vehicles. Nevertheless, Pakistan can produce EVs locally to export to those countries where EVs are on high demand. Pakistan has the potential to attract manufacturers to launch Pakistan-made EVs for the world. Pakistan has the potential to be knows as an EVs manufacturer as it has fame in textile industry.
The authorities in Pakistan have given a green signal to one of the leading brands in motor vehicles “MG”. The MG is a British based automotive marque which produces and exports gasoline vehicles. It has kicked off producing and exporting EVs. Now, MG aims to start EVs production locally in Pakistan to hit the local market as well as explore its exports from Pakistan to the region and other regions too.
We approached the MG marque and asked them a couple of questions for our readers.
While talking about the vision of the MG brand regarding EVs production and export from Pakistan, the MG General Manager Marketing Division Syed Asif Ahmed reply Automark that MG was committed to localisation and automotive exports from Pakistan. The first step to ensure automotive export was achieving global homologation and safety standards. In the AIDEP 2021 – 26 (Auto Policy) A road map had been identified for implementation of WP 29 standards. MG had already started working on the localisation of MG HS and planned to explore export RHD to relevant markets.
According Syed Asif of MG, the EVs industry has to move faster in order to get fair share of global automotive trade. The government has announced the new policy for the production and export of EVs in the country for the brands and manufacturers. The encouraging aspect of the new policy is that it requires local manufacturers to export 1% to 10% in coming 5 years which can be considered a healthy sign.
This is going to be a really positive sign in terms of Pakistan economy. If MG starts producing and exporting EVs, this will help Pakistan gain more foreign exchange, employment, and more DGP growth. So, Pakistan seems to be an exporting country in future. The challenge is how quickly Pakistan can kick off EVs exports to other countries. The sooner it takes, the healthier outcome will Pakistan have.
MG thinks that Electric Vehicles are inevitable. Pakistan has a chance to join the EV revolution by becoming part of the global EV supply chain. It can be hardware like Motors or software like Battery Management Systems.MG Pakistan is to learn from its majority shareholder SAIC, a Chinese automobile manufacturer, to develop a local talent pool of suppliers. MG ZS and MG 4 Mulan are very well accepted in European and Australian markets. In Pakistan too these models will pave the way for local EV revolution.
We also contacted an automotive expert Mashood Khan for our readers to know the progress and challenges of the industry in terms of export. He told Automark that all the assemblers of the vehicles who were working in Pakistan had not got the opportunity yet to export their assembled cars and other vehicles to other countries. This looks discouraging, Khan further told us that their suppliers and vendors were still seeking some room and opportunity to work on electric vehicles in the country. Mashood Khan expressed his hope that as any of the brands like MG starts working in the country to promote export of the EVs, their vendors will be right there to start their work too in the country.
EVs are the future of the world. This will take a while to spread EVs globally. This is possible only if the authorities understand that the necessity is the mother of invention. Global warming has become one of the biggest challenges all over the world. The world so is Pakistan thinking to rebuild the environment.
A study tells that in the field of gasoline vehicles the leading exporting countries are Germany, Japan, US and others. Likewise in the export of the EVs, so far, Germany is one of the leading countries. In this scenario Pakistan lies far behind and in fact is not seen on the map of gasoline exporting countries. Hence it seems quite challenging for the country to stand out as an exporter of EVs. This can only be possible through contacting, contracting and giving healthy business environment to the local and international brands of the EVs so that they can not only produce but also explore their exports from Pakistan to the countries across Asia and Arab. Pakistan can also help local manufacturers provide them with international technologies, automobile engineering facilities to grow and confront the global exporters. Two aspects that Pakistan should ponder over: first is to introduce user-friendly EVs with unique features that can distinguish Pakistani EVs from others, second is to meet the least cost of production so that the Pakistani EVs can be displayed for export at a cheaper rate than its rivals.
This is high time. Pakistan’s decision to give a go-ahead to the international brands like MG to produce and work on the export of EVs is being considered a much-needed decision. Pakistan needs to do more in this respect, lest it stand far behind in the list of its rivals.