Pakistan: Inflation drives demand for electric vehicles

DW (English)

Motorists on Pakistan's roads are swapping gas for electric in response to rising prices of petrol and diesel in the country. But it's not a solution that everyone is able to reap the benefits of, warns an automotive sector expert.

Transcript

00:00The reason I bought this bike is that I have a lot of daily work.

00:10From office to home, from home to office.

00:12Most of my work is on the bike.

00:15Mostly I am on the bike.

00:17The petrol bike used to cost me around 500 to 600 rupees.

00:22And after buying this, it is going on my savings.

00:27In Pakistan, if we use public transport,

00:31there are a lot of problems with a girl.

00:35Public transport is not safe for us.

00:38So before this, I bought my 70, which was on petrol.

00:43After using it, I realized that more than half of my salary is going to petrol.

00:49Then someone told me about the electric bike, so I bought it.

00:54Now my life is peaceful.

00:58There is no noise, no pollution.

01:03It is very environment friendly.

01:05It is very smooth, like a girl needs a soft touch.

01:16I will not be able to tell you the exact figures of how many units we have sold.

01:19But right now we are overbooked.

01:20Overbooked means that people are interested.

01:22Most of the people are interested in savings.

01:24Because you can save up to 90% of your money by saving fuel.

01:28That's why people are more interested in electric bikes.

01:48The biggest benefit is that it gets full in 3 hours.

01:51Which gives me 100 kilometers.

01:53Because Delhi's running is 100 kilometers minor.

01:56And I can drive almost 100 kilometers.

01:59That is also my saving.

02:01And there is a normal charger of 220 volts.

02:05It charges me.

02:06I don't need a big socket, a big electric wire.

02:09I can charge my bike easily with any mobile charger.

02:14The first reason is that the price.

02:22This is a car worth 40 lakhs.

02:24So for a common user, this car is very affordable.

02:28The second thing is that all the features that are present in a car are already there.

02:34The third thing is that it is electric, easy to charge.

02:36So a person who is going to his office, going to meet his friends, going to a wedding.

02:41He can easily charge it at home and go anywhere.

02:46It comes with a charger, which is about 16 amps.

02:50It charges at 220 volts.

02:51What you can do is, you can install a box at home.

02:55Where you can charge it easily.

02:57So when you are charging easily.

02:59You can charge it in 7 hours and drive it for 200 kilometers.

03:04So you don't have to worry about whether there are charging stations or not.

03:12It's all about the finance.

03:36But at the moment, your fixed price is very high.

03:39We say that you should reduce the fixed price.

03:42The running cost is attractive.

03:44That my fuel is being saved for a month.

03:47It's good.

03:48But I think, am I able to afford it?

04:01You start with public transport, sir.

04:03Developing charging stations for public transport.

04:08As compared to conventional cars and motorcycles.

04:13The challenge is less.

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