ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Industry and Production Haroon Akhtar has said that the government has prepared a new electric vehicle policy and soon the manufacturing of engines of electric vehicles will start in Pakistan.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Haroon Akhtar said that the new electric vehicle policy will be for five years. He said electric vehicles will also be exported which will make Pakistan’s air free from smog.
He said that electric vehicles will reduce imported fuel and reduce carbon emissions by 4.5 million tonnes. The introduction of electric vehicles will save two billion and 70 million liters of petrol per year, while saving billions of dollars in the annual import bill.
Haroon Akhtar said that EVs will be subsidized by taxing the engine of petrol and diesel. The size of the subsidy is 100 billion rupees in five years. In the first year, a subsidy of nine billion rupees will be given on electric vehicles and its stations, he said, adding charging stations will be installed every 100 kilometers on the motorway.
He also announced subsidy for electric bikes and rickshaws and said that in the first year, one lakh 16 thousand bikes will get subsidy in which women will have 25 percent share.
The government has fixed the rate of electricity for electric vehicles at Rs37.9 per unit, he added.
