News Today: Attock Oil Will Bring First Electric Car Charging Point At A Fuel Station
Federal Minister of Science and Technology Fawad Caudhary recently announced in his tweet that Attock Oil will bring first electric car charging point at a fuel station. This comes as a great news for many people who have been anticipating relevant steps by the authorities regulating NEVP, Pakistan’s electric vehicle initiative. It is a common practice to avail separate pieces of land and build electric car charging points around the world but the concept of having one at a regular petroleum pump is a great idea as it will unify the delivery place of fuel resources for any type of vehicle on the road. This electric vehicle charging point will be set up very soon in Jinnah Avenue, Islamabad, which is also regarded as the busiest places in Islamabad.
Extremely excited to see launching of first Electric Car Charging Station in Islamabad #AttockOil is opening flagship EV charging facility at Jinnah Avenue Islamabd, This was another target of @MinistryofST to encourage E vehicles as future transportation ..
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) July 20, 2020
It is to be noted that this electric car charging point will not be the first to be launched in the city if Islamabad. The first ever electric car charging point was established in F-6 sector of Islamabad, also known as Kohsar Market.
Pakistan’s Electric Vehicle Policy
The government officially approved Pakistan’s first ever electric vehicle policy a while back in which it was decided to rid the country of domestic means of transportation and introduce newer, cleaner and more efficient means of travelling – electric vehicles. This policy also announced some major incentives for people would hop onto this concept in the early days including 0% interest rate, no toll tax and no car registrations. However, this policy has been divided into several phases and the first phase “EV-1” addresses not regular family cars, but buses, trucks, rickshaws and taxis as they are the most significant polluting factors.
Personally owned cars will be added at a later stage in the process and the time tenure for when that will happen remains uncertain. Keep in mind, Pakistan will manufacture its own electric vehicles and not import any electric vehicles of famous brands like Tesla and BMW EV. This will be one to boost country’s economy and also create employment in technical departments.
Read All About It: PAKISTAN’S ELECTRIC VEHICLE POLICY – IN DETAIL
Greener Pakistan, At What Cost?
There is no ambiguity in the fact that Pakistan will pursue electric vehicle program in order to ensure a cleaner and greener Pakistan which is extremely important for the health and safety of our future generations. PM Imran Khan is ambitious enough to imagine 90% Pakistanis turning to electric vehicles by 2030, making Pakistan enter among the list of countries which take climate change seriously. However, some sectors of transportation are worried
Industrialists fear that there would be an exponential jump in the cost of development. Mian Ali Hameed at Sazgar Engineering Works Limited, a leading rickshaw manufacturer in Pakistan says that working on the manufacturing of electric powered rickshaws on an industrial scale has begun. The thing he says the industry fears the most is that rickshaw market is laden of people who are struggling to make both ends meet by driving rickshaws and earning for their families. The electric powered rickshaws will be almost double the price tag of petroleum powered ones, around Rs. 400,000 as compared to Rs. 250,000.
One can just hope that this great initiative of government meets fruition and the poor also does not get effected in the process.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments.
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