PAKISTAN imports petroleum products worth roughly $16 billion every year. Simultaneously, it pays domestic power producers billions of rupees for electricity that goes unused. Imported fuel is burned daily as power plants sit idle, compensated through guaranteed capacity payments regardless of actual output or consumption.

Few contradictions can better capture Pakistan’s structural economic dysfunction. Addressing this paradox requires looking beyond familiar remedies, and electric vehicles (EVs) offer one such underex-plored opportunity.

Globally, the shift towards mass electric mobility has moved decisively from aspiration to reality. In 2025, China sold more than 16.5 million new energy vehicles, accounting for over half of all domestic automobile sales. The United States is planning to ensure that EVs comprise 50 per cent of new vehicle sales by 2030, and the European Union has embedded transport electrification into its broader climate and industrial strategy. The direction of commute is unmistakable.

Pakistan has also articulated similar ambitions through the National Electric Vehicle Policy 2025-30 (NEVP), which targets 30pc of new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030, rising to 90pc by 2040.

Significantly, it prioritises motorcycles and three-wheelers, proposes around 40 fast-charging stations along all the major motorways, and signals support for local manufacturing.

The scepticism that followed was pre-dictable. Critics wonder how Pakistan can promote EVs when electricity supply itself remains unreliable. Loadshedding remains routine, and adding millions of EVs would surely strain an already fragile system. This critique, while intuitively appealing, misdiagnoses the problem.

The power crisis in Pakistan’s is not one of inadequate generation. It is actually a crisis of chronic underutilisation. The country has significant surplus generation capacity. Yet, under long-term contracts with independent power producers (IPPs), the government has to make fixed capacity payments regardless of consumption. These payments are then passed on to consumers through higher tariffs, even as power plants operate well below potential.

EVs offer a solution to this imbalance. Widespread adoption of electric motor-cycles, rickshaws, and eventually cars would create a steady new demand for electricity. Crucially, most charging would occur during off-peak hours, particularly at night when industrial demand falls. By utilising electricity already paid for but wasted, EVs can spread fixed costs over higher consumption, reducing pressure on per-unit tariffs. At the household level, the economics are compelling.

Over time, better power system uti-lisation could moderate electricity costs. Households would benefit as capacity payments will be distributed across a larger consumer base. Add to it the environment factor and you would see that few policy interventions, if any at all, align house- hold incentives with national interests so precisely.

None of this suggests an easy transition. Pakistan’s distribution network will require upgrades to manage new demand patterns. Charging infrastructure must be deployed at scale, particularly in dense urban areas. Above all, policy credibility is essential. Investors will not commit capital unless policy commitments survive govern-mental transitions. The NEVP could truly become a success story if persistent financing and infrastructure challenges are addressed.

Pakistan’s choice going forward is clear: integrate electric mobility to stabilise the power sector, ease foreign-exchange pressure, and improve public health — or let another strategic opportunity slip away.

Dr Navak & Nabeel Badr
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2026