The future of Pakistani transportation is looking extremely sleek in luxury auto showrooms in Karachi, Lahore and even Islamabad. But, in recent years, silent, glistening electric vehicles (EVs) are making headlines as superior alternatives to any rapidly rising petrol prices and as an eco-friendly escape from smog-filled urban air. However, venture beyond the climate-controlled realm and the facade comes crashing down. Several meters further down the road, the driver drives through a pockmarked monsoon-destroyed avenue, and a patch of darkness obscures the neighborhood. This clear contrast brings to light a fundamental paradox: Pakistan is trying to create a transport system of the 21st century on a 20th-century crumbling and financially bankrupt transport infrastructure.
The National Electric Vehicle Policy (NEVP) is seen as a panacea for the chronic fiscal challenges and recurring fuel shortages experienced by the country. The rationale seems viable; replace imported petroleum by domestic electric power to relieve the balance-of-payments problem. But a dispassionate assessment shows that unless Pakistan is prepared to initiate fundamental changes in the urban governance system and the power sector, the EV revolution might just be a privilege enjoyed by the elite class which will simply transfer the economic constraints from the power sector to the transport sector.The major macro-economic case for EVs is the cut in the oil import bill. However, this story fails to ask a key question; how does Pakistan get its electricity supply? both thermal and imported fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal are still very much needed for the national grid. An EV plugged in is not automatically powered by sunshine, it is powered by a national grid that is plagued by high transmission losses and inefficiency. If the country is to power an increasing number of EVs using a fossil fuel grid, carbon dioxide emissions and reliance on foreign oil won’t be removed, just transferred from oil marketing firms to power company firms (DISCOs).
Moreover, the power sector already faces suffocation due to a large pile up of circular debt, which stood at around Rs5.44 trillion in 2026. The vicious circle of under-recoveries and capacity payments to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) continues. A significant amount of new demand with thousands of rapid charging cars will be a recipe for failure for an unstable grid. An uncoordinated shift to EVs will deepen the liquidity crunch in the power sector, resulting in more widespread industrial blackouts unless Pakistan increases its localized use of renewable sources, like solar and wind energy, and remediates the power distribution leakages.In addition, there is no consistent public network of fast charging stations from which EV usage is limited to local city commuting, except in affluent residential areas. “Range anxiety” is not a psychological reaction for the middle-class buyer but a rational assessment of the idea that he or she could be left with a car worth millions of rupees when an emergency intercity grid breakdown occurs.
This leads to the equity problem with existing policy planning. The fiscal support the State offers for the luxury EVs, including zero taxes on sales taxes and customs duties, has created an uneven playing field for those who can afford to purchase them as secondary or tertiary vehicles, and use them to get around town. This is an inappropriate use of public funds. The policy goal should be to seriously shift attention toward reducing imports and improving air quality, and should go hard on the private luxury sedan. True change will come when public transport, intra city buses, and two-wheel delivery vehicles become electric. Despite the fact that these sectors use the vast majority of fuels and produce the vast majority of urban emissions, they have a minuscule share of structural support required to transition.Pakistan must not leave its EV policy as a stand-alone target of industry. It should be part of a comprehensive, all-encompassing urban planning and energy plan. First, the government has to create a policy that all public EV charging stations must be on a local solar powered micro grid with battery storage.Last but not least, policy incentives need to focus on mass transportation and commercial electrification. Pakistan is truly at a moment where the electric vehicle revolution presents an opportunity to change the country’s economic and environmental trajectory. However, absence of action by the State on the issue of structural decay in its grids and roads will leave the EV pivot in neutral, and the country in an endless cycle of fuel crises, potholes and power failures.https://radio.gov.pk/19-06-2025/federal-govt-launches-national-electric-vehicle-policy-2025-30