In the wake of the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Plan recently approved by the Federal Cabinet, the Ministry of Industries and Production has finalized plans for production of large number of 100,000 e-bikes in a somewhat short period of 18 month as its contribution towards conservation of energy as well as help reduce carbon emission and fuel consumption also.
According to the officials concerned of the Ministry, under the scheme devised in this regard for initially produce at least 100000 e-bikes in 18 months and also proposed provision off subsidy of Rs 17.5 billion for encouraging the prospective buyers to purchase comparatively costliest bikes.
According to the scheme, the federal government will bear a down payment of Rs 90,000 for purchase of each e-bike initially estimated to cost Rs 170000 whereas the prospective buyer will pay only Rs 10,000 making the initial total payment of Rs 100,000.
The bank providing a commercial loan of Rs 70,000 will charge interest of Kibor+2 or 19 per cent which is estimated to be Rs 13300. Under the scheme so prepared ,a 24 24- monthly instalment plan has also been given under which the customer will be paying Rs 4310 every month including the principal amount of Rs 2912, interest payment of Rs 1109 and insurance payment of Rs 284 (2 per cent).
The Ministry officials hope that production and sale of some 15000 e-bikes will take place during ongoing financial year 2022-23 which is passing through its se third quarter now. Another 60000 e-bikes are targeted to be produced and sold during financial year 2023-24 and 10000 more bikes are expected to be produced and sold during 2024-25 thus achieving the total production of 175000 e-bikes in three years.
The e-bikes will be provided to the students with salaried parents, female students/employees (20 per cent quota), transgender (01 per cent quota) government employees , private sector salaried/self-employed individuals
with National Tax Number (NTN) and bank account, government/ armed forces pensioners, Imam Masjid/ Hafiz-e-Quran/Muazzan, duly qualified from an institution duly recognized by the Federal Government.
The ministry officials pointedly stated that the ordinary motorbikes consume petrol of about three billion dollars annually. Hence shifting to e-bikes will hopefully help in cutting down not only the energy import bill but also further reducing carbon emissions as the e-bikes will be more environment friendly.
The previous government had also New Auto Policy for promoting new technologies including Electric Vehicles and Hybrid and accommodative monetary policy to promote auto financing and paving the way to increase automobiles production and this must also be vigorously pursued at the federal government level . As a matter of fact, the electric vehicles are not only the future but the present and already China’s auto market has proven it so by enhancing its production in the last couple of years. The global market, according to the experts concerned, for electric vehicles was also growing continuously at annual growth rate of 21.7 per cent. As the country is focusing on indigenous resources already for electricity production, switching over to electric vehicles will hopefully drastically reduce reliance on imported fuel and in the process also giving much needed impetus to the national economy, the experts added.
