By Zunaira Ashraf
“What hurts the beehive hurts the bee,” wrote Marcus Aurelius. Pakistan’s electric vehicle (EV) transition is a beehive in which government, industry, provinces and consumers have yet to learn to work together.
The ambition is clear. The New Energy Vehicles (NEV) Policy 2025-30 aims for EVs to make up 30 per cent of new vehicle sales by 2030. That would cut the fuel import bill, absorb surplus grid capacity and help deliver Pakistan’s Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. The Pakistan Accelerated Vehicle Electrification (PAVE) programme backs this with consumer subsidies of roughly Rs65,000 to Rs80,000 for two-wheelers, Rs400,000 for three-wheelers and Rs15,000 per kWh for four-wheelers. The government has set aside Rs9 billion for the 2025-26 fiscal year and plans 3,000 charging stations by 2030.
But the policy’s weakness lies in execution, not intent.
Pakistan’s policy machinery is still largely hierarchical: top-down, slow and tangled in red tape. Electrification cuts across transport, energy, excise, finance, industry and commerce, and no single ministry can deliver it alone. What the country needs is heterarchical governance, in which institutions coordinate as partners and more stakeholders share in the benefits.
The gaps are already visible. Coordination between the federal and provincial governments has weakened since the 18th Amendment. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the plan to convert petrol vehicles into retrofitted electric rickshaws has stalled. Transport, energy, excise and finance departments have not aligned on even basic matters such as registering retrofitted EVs. A good idea dies quietly in the gaps between departments.
Tariffs are the second fault line. Under the current structure, Completely Knocked Down (CKD) kits attract just 1 per cent duty on EV-specific parts, and 10 to 15 per cent on non-localised parts. Fully assembled Completely Built Units (CBU) of four-wheeler EVs from China face 25 per cent. This encourages adoption, which is welcome, but it also encourages imports over manufacturing. Without a clear localisation roadmap, it prolongs dependence on foreign suppliers, starves the domestic auto-parts industry and feeds unemployment and brain drain.
Cheap imports and assembly parts routed through Afghanistan and Dubai invite smuggling, while Pakistan’s traditional protection model keeps manufacturing barriers high. The result is a policy that promotes consumption but not production.
A rationalised tariff regime would fix this. Linking incentives to a localisation target of around 60 per cent, with a 10 to 15 per cent levy on non-localised components, would reward firms that invest in Pakistan rather than merely ship to it.
The wider context makes coordination more urgent. The US-Iran conflict and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz have shown how exposed Pakistan is to energy shocks, with consumers ultimately bearing the cost. Meanwhile, growth of 3 to 4 per cent has been held back by heavy duties on industry, and the coordination gap between the Ministries of Commerce and Finance has kept the export base narrow.
The solutions are not exotic.
First, build real institutional coordination. Initiatives such as the Bijli-Sahulat package, aimed at affordable power for productive sectors, and the planned Pakistan Power Management Company show what integrated planning can look like. Germany offers a model of bringing utilities, industry, researchers and regulators into one conversation. Australia’s “see it, steer it, plan it” approach offers a three-tier template.
Second, finance the transition fairly. With support for banking reforms, including from the IMF, banks and original equipment manufacturers could offer concessional loans and credit guarantees to low-income buyers. Documentation hurdles such as CNIC and excise requirements for two- and three-wheelers should be eased.
Third, close the federal-provincial gap. With an estimated $9-10 billion in projects facing execution problems, smoother coordination is a precondition for attracting manufacturing investment and creating jobs through localisation.
Fourth, enforce accountability. Government audits must ensure that taxes are paid in full, so incentives do not become leakages.
Pakistan already stands among the leaders of the global solar revolution. Reaching the 2030 target will depend less on how many subsidies are announced than on whether government, industry and citizens move together: politics, partnerships and people, supported by market and regulatory reform.
The beehive can still thrive. But only if the bees stop working at cross-purposes.