But getting back to the discussion at hand, small cars are the need in Pakistan. Unfortunately, they are not the priority for our local assemblers. According to them, there is no profit in it for them. The reason can be a simple one. Local Assembly is the lowest rung in the localization game. It is always good for political optics (providing jobs) but it is not that great for cost cutting or business opportunities or earning international revenue; not unless exports are involved. In our case, rather than being beneficial, due to the now very high costs of doing business in Pakistan, even local assembly will add to the overall cost of the product. Thus, making it more expensive. Maybe this is what is happening to all local cars in Pakistan and it is what is causing the sky-high prices. (However, as we have seen before, this practice of high margins on cars was there with the old three even when the market was stable. So exploiting lack of regulation and policy and simple greed play a major role here too.)

The market is, at the moment, ripe for the proper import of small cars. Most ones imported from Japan are now mild hybrid. Those are the best requirement for solving the fuel debate. Currently, to save their questionable businesses, the local assemblers have targeted all imports including these small cars. These  small cars must be separated from the import debate because the companies themselves have said they will not do small cars. So that means this sorely required “commodity” is not locally available. So why the ban on their imports when there is dire need for them by the nation as a whole for saving on fuel? Allow their imports at very low rates and just ban the import of anything above 1000CCs to keep things simple.

Also, the EV point must be seriously considered. Again, thanks to the efforts of the local car mafia, Pakistan’s EV policy has been left very damaged and ineffective. EVs have been made very expensive and even very good affordable EV sedans, Hatchbacks and small SUVs from China are out of the question because of the strange and totally arbitrary 50kWh battery tax exemption limit. I have not come across such a limit by any other nation (to my knowledge) where they have committed to the green initiative effectively. We have political shills who talk the talk about the green initiative but are not brave enough to actually do what is necessary to achieve it. With affordable EVs, people can move on to vehicles which could really help reduce fuel costs in city commutes. That will be a huge savings for many thus reducing the nation’s dependence on imported fuels.

So long story short, small car imports need to be started again. It will not hurt the business of the local assemblers so why the worry? EV policy must be revisited and such stupid limits removed if we are seriously committed to the green initiative and ultimately bring down our fuel imports. But so far, all this is a pipe dream. We don’t have any one with the political will to fight this much needed fight.

While 3-wheelers underwent a silent revolution in the form of CNG rickshaw during Musharraf’s era, making them more silent, powerful, low emissions, spacious and more comfortable suspension. New brands like Rozgar, New Asia, Sazgar, Stahlco Commando, Tuk Tuk, Tez raftar sprung up with 4-stroke rickshaws which quickly superseded the existing fleet of noisy smokey and cramped 2-stroke vespacar and sarmadcar rickshaws. Later on when CNG holidays became a norm, all these rickshaws were retrofitted to take petrol. The new rickshaws even come with hydraulic disc brakes.

This rickshaw fleet upgrade is now 15+ years old an another update is overdue giving them even better fuel efficiency, better safety, lighting etc,, but the state of the art of 2-wheelers is much worse than 3-wheelers.

The last proper upgrade to 2-wheelers was seen in 1991, when point was replaced with CDI and a more silent silencer was introduced in the CD-70. It is high time they offered across-the-board improvement for motorcycles, not only to fuel efficiency but to increase the comfort, loading capacity, brakes (disc brakes + 2-channel ABS), EFI, fully transistorized ignition (distributorless ignition in other words), projection lens headlight, LED taillight and c.

And finally, there is a lot more contribution to pollution than only the transportation sector: https://carspiritpk.com/switching-euro-5-solve-environmental-problems/#comment-4970

https://carspiritpk.com/the-cost-of-fuel-inefficiency-how-pakistan-is-losing-billions/