Ghandhara Nissan to roll out electric vehicles in 3 years

ISLAMABAD: Ghandhara Nissan has collaborated with a Chinese firm to roll out electric vehicles from their new proposed plant in Pakistan within next to three years, the company’s officials said on Wednesday.

The company will introduce its lineup of electric vehicles in the country in the next two to three years in line with government of Pakistan’s initiative to implement electric vehicle policy, they said during a meeting with Board of Investment (BoI) Secretary Fareena Mazhar.

Muazzam Pervaiz, chief operating officer of Ghandhara Nissan along with his team visited the BoI to present business plan of brownfield investment of Rs2.4 billion.

Ghandhara Nissan aims to launch latest passenger cars in Pakistan in collaboration with China-based Chery Group. The line-up includes various types of passenger cars ranging from hatchbacks to sedans, crossovers to sports utility vehicles and electric vehicles.

Sales of cars rose 18 percent to 78,910 units during the first six months of the current fiscal year, according to the industry’s data. Suzuki, Indus Motors, Honda and Hyundai logged sales of 67,019 units in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, Topline Securities said.

Passenger car sales increased 12.6 percent to 11,247 units in December from 9,987 units during the same month a year earlier. Moreover, car sales remained lower against 11,914 units in November. Jeeps, buses, tractors, three-wheelers and motorcycles have also shown an increase in sales.

Auto market witnessed strong recovery following the easing of lockdown last year. The central bank delivered 625 basis points last year in a bid to revive the growth in the economy that contracted 0.4 percent in the last fiscal year of 2019/20.

Guided by lower interest rates, consumer demand showed sharp recovery. There is huge pent-up demand in Pakistan’s auto market of an estimated one million units.

Local car assemblers staggered to meet barely a quarter of demand through new cars.

Recently, a number of auto companies flooded the market with new cars. Kia, Hyundai, Proton and DFSK launched sports utility vehicles.

Chery Group is a leading brand of Chinese Auto Industry. The company established a complete research and development system with more than 11,000 patents and 3,200 dedicated research and development staff. Chery has more than 2,600 pilot projects with 23 professional modules covering vehicle and component reliability, handling stability, NVH, safety and environmental adaptability, emissions, materials and other properties of test development and verification capabilities.

Mazhar of BoI appreciated the planned product line which will provide value for money and offer top of the line safety features to consumers. She informed the team about various measures taken by the government to ensure a friendly business environment including incentives proposed in the upcoming electric vehicle policy. She assured of BoI’s facilitation as and when needed for successful execution of the venture. “The venture will create employment opportunities,” Mazhar said in a statement.