An alternate to petrol motorcycles

With petroleum prices increasing to Rs277 per litre, the fuel cost burden for a motorcycle owner will significantly increase. Pakistan needs to move fast towards electric motorcycle adoption to provide relief to these lower-middle and middle-class households. This requires enabling market-driven approaches with the government playing a facilitator role. Assuming an average of one-litre consumption per day, motorcycle users will be spending Rs5,000 to Rs10,000 per month in fuel expenses with the new petroleum price. This translates into about $5 billion of refined petroleum imports per year, based on the current ex-refinery price of Rs205.58 per litre and 20 litre/month average consumption for each of these 26 million motorcycles on the road. In addition, these motorcycles are contributing to about 16 per cent of Pakistan’s total CO2 emissions and impacting the environment in large cities. Electric motorcycles/scooters can reduce this monthly fuel expense by Rs4,600-8,500 with battery charging at Rs15-25 per KWh home charging rate. In addition, if the average travel by petrol-based motorcycle is 12,000km per year, emitting 50g/km of CO2, each electric motorcycle replacing a petrol one reduces 600kg of CO2 annually.