Pakistan's week was about local assembly and supply: iCAUR's V27 arrived, Jaecoo revealed a locally assembled electric J5, and a $2.25 billion battery plant was disclosed, still waiting on policy approval.
Vehicles arriving and being assembled
The first iCAUR V27 shipment, about 90 vehicles, reached Pakistan ahead of deliveries that NexGen Auto had said would start by the end of October (report). Jaecoo revealed the J5 BEV as a locally assembled (CKD) model joining the J5 hybrid; no price was given, and the article's range figures differ: 461 km in the introduction, against 392 km WLTP and 335 km EPA in the specification table (report). BYD's Atto 2 was added to the official fleet of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (report).
Battery plant, still conditional
Margalla Heavy Industries signed a July agreement with Chinese partners and local investors for a $2.25 billion lithium-ion cell plant at Taxila. The Engineering Development Board says production could start six to eight months after government approval of the required policies, which include a lithium-battery manufacturing policy sent to the Ministry of Industries in March; the Chinese partner has not been named (report).
Comparisons without local prices
PakWheels set the Pakistan-spec Deepal S05 REEV Max against a Thai-market Geely Starray EM-R (report), and another comparison weighs the Geely EX5 against the BYD Atto 3, though the EX5's local price and specifications are unannounced (report).
What it means
- The two vehicle stories show assembly widening to electric models, while the battery plant shows how much of the supply chain still depends on unapproved policy.
- Prices are the missing piece in several stories this week: the J5 BEV and EX5 have none announced locally.