PRIME Minister Imran Khan had launched electric bikes at a ceremony in Islamabad last week and according to the CEO of Jolta Electric, the manufacturer of these bikes, the response from the buyers has been overwhelming as students, teachers and courier companies have greatly shown their interest in purchasing them.
Given the increasing prices of petrol, the electric bikes are the most cost effective alternative for the common man in Pakistan.
The locally manufactured e-bike has also reasonably been priced at Rs 82,500 and reportedly it will only cost Rs 1000 per month on consumers’ wallet as compared to Rs 4000-5000 on petrol driven 70 cc bikes.
Since the petrol is getting out of reach of the people, therefore, we have no doubt in saying that these electric bikes will outsmart petrol driven bikes and that too very quickly in the months ahead.
The demand for electric bikes indeed will also encourage more companies to invest in this sector and with enhanced competition, one may anticipate that their prices will remain at affordable levels.
Then we may also explore options of exporting electric vehicles to other countries such as Africa, Afghanistan and the Central Asian States.
The government really deserves appreciation for giving unprecedented tax relief to the auto sector especially for domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles. This has triggered a lot of interest amongst the new entrants.
Since the electric vehicles have much lower maintenance cost, the people will definitely prefer them after their local production in the country.
However, it must be ensured that the prices of these vehicles are also within the reach of our middle class.
The banks may also be asked to provide easy loans to the people to turn to the electric vehicles. The success of electric vehicles and bikes will have immense benefits for our economy.
On the one hand, it will help us save foreign exchange currently being spent on the purchase of fuel but, these environment friendly vehicles will also help in checking the air pollution which in major cities is reaching dangerous levels.
