ISLAMABAD: Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar on Thursday expressed hope that local assembling of electric vehicles (EVs) would start in the country by this year under the prime minister’s clean and green initiative.
Addressing a consultative workshop ‘Scaling up electric Mobility in Pakistan’ organised jointly by National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA) and UNDP, the minister said the government has introduced its first national EV policy last year and announced new incentives to promote EV adoption.
“The government reduced the custom duties and sales tax on EV which would help accelerate this transition towards cleaner and efficient mobility,” he added.
The minister said role of EV charging infrastructure was critical. Hence, the widespread, accessible public charging infrastructure network was needed to support a robust EV market.
He said there are some unique challenge that we had to address towards achieving our electric mobility goals. “First, we had to provide reliable supply of power to charge these EVs and this would require to upgrade the grid and distribution network.”
He said the assembling of electric motorbike has already started; however, as it was a new technology and it required charging infrastructure.
He said the private sector has also started developing charging infrastructure in the country and that the government would fully support the private sector in this regard.
Azhar said there was a need for establishing the regulatory framework to streamline the development of EV charging stations across the country. He urged the NEECA and other relevant entities to expedite work on regulation, standardization and licensing policy for development of charging infrastructure.
He said it would not only reduce billion of dollars oil import bill but also help control pollution in cities and absorb the surplus electricity capacity in the country.
The minister congratulated NEECA and the UNDP for their partnership on this aspect of electrification of road transport sector in Pakistan.
