As for the automotive industry, Pakistan is about to usher in a golden age of development. Chinese brands including BAIC Motor, Changan Auto and SAIC Motor, have set up their own assembly plants in Pakistan. Other brands like GWM, BYD and Geely are likely to open plants in Pakistan too,” Philip Jian, Pakistan’s Honorary Investment Counsellor in China said in an interview with CEN.
Now, increasingly more Chinese brands, with positive prospects on Pakistan’s automotive industry, are cherishing Pakistan as an important destination of their strategic plan.
“Chery’s market of right-hand drive cars covers seven countries. Especially in South Africa and Nepal, etc., we have already been listed, but these are the market for complete vehicles. Pakistan is the first market for CKD vehicles among them, and the vehicles will be assembled and produced locally,” Felix Hu, Director of Chery Automobile Pakistan told CEN.
Automobile manufacturing in Pakistan through Sino-Pak collaboration will improve local employment and tax revenue. More importantly, “as we will manufacture our latest model here, therefore our technology and management skills will be integrated into the project in Pakistan, which will have an extremely positive impact on the improvement of the entire industry in Pakistan,” Felix said.
“You will see there’re always advantages for JV because both sides save time and money. We can in very short time, start production and go forward. It’s great,” said Zubair Aamir, Head, Three-Wheeler Project Team of Sazgar Engineering Works Ltd.
In 2020, the Pakistani government approved the Electric Vehicle Policy 2020-2025, aiming to seeing electric vehicles capture 30% of all the passenger vehicle and heavy-duty truck sales by 2030, and 90% by 2040. Benefitted from the support from the Pakistani government, in recent years, the electric vehicle industry in Pakistan is growing strongly, and the cooperation between Chinese and Pakistan enterprises is springing up like mushrooms.
“China has developed standards for electric vehicles including electric storage, batteries, etc. China had done it because China is much ahead than any other nation in the world about standardizing electing vehicle and its products. So I would like to get these things from China,” Zubair Aamir said. It’s learned that the whole EV industry revolves around the battery system, which is mainly dominated by China, Japan and South Korea worldwide.
Zubar also showed an electric three-wheeler, integration of Chinese and Pakistani wisdom, to CEN. “Its motor, battery and electronic control system are all imported from China, sharing the same production line with Tesla. The steel frame steering system of the whole vehicle is also from China. All the seats on the car are made of Pakistani calfskin, comfortable and soft,” he said.
“In recent years, Chinese automobile brands have become very mature in technology, especially when it comes to the entry-level models. We can confidently say that they already can compete with Japanese and Korean models. In fact, we encourage enterprises to invest in the whole industry chain in Pakistan, not just in CKD assembly plants. That is to say, through our technology and equipment exports and capacity transfer, Pakistan’s basic industrial supporting capacity can be rapidly stimulated. We believe we have the ability to make it,” Philip Jian concluded with confidence.
