Mashood Ali Khan, former chairman, PAAPAM has strongly criticised the proposed national electric vehicles policy saying that this policy will irreversibly damage the local auto industry. He said that Pakistan’s EV introduction plans is to have 30% BEV vehicle by 2030 while the salient features of policy framework are not in line with ground realities. Citing the examples of other countries he said that India, Thailand and Indonesia are treating Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) & Battery electric vehicle (BEV) under one policy to curb fossil fuel utilization.
Mashood proposed a better plan for entry of electric vehicles into the market. He said “They should have three steps policy. In the first step from 2020-25, the government should promote indigenization in prevailing products and promote clean renewable energy programme.
“In the second step from 2026-30, they can introduce HEV/PHEV promotion policy and build charging infrastructure. And then from 2031 onwards EV policy should be executed to achieve targets,”
Drastic reduction in customs duty for CBU and low custom duties for CKDs will prevent localization and irreparably damage the local industry
Another consideration is that huge forex outflow will happen in case of CBU/SKD units’ imports since EVs are high value products.
In the end he proposed that, the government should govern local auto industry as per incentives given in Auto Development Policy 2016-21.
