HUBCO denies BYD plant delay: Pakistan assembly by end-2026, 1,000 to 1,500 cars a month

Hub Power Company (HUBCO) has denied that its BYD car assembly plant in Pakistan is running late and says it will be producing by the end of 2026, with an initial sales run rate of 1,000 to 1,500 vehicles a month, Business Recorder reported on Tuesday. The statement came at HUBCO's annual general meeting and was published in a note by brokerage Arif Habib Limited (AHL), which attended.

Zayan Babar Khan, an analyst at AHL, told Business Recorder the BYD Pakistan plant is expected to be operational in "4-5 weeks".

The numbers

BYD's own figures come from Liu Xueliang, vice president of BYD and general manager of its Asia Pacific auto sales division, who told BR Research earlier this month that the Pakistan plant was "nearing its launch in the second half of 2026". He said it is BYD's sixth factory outside China and would avoid an estimated 165,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2034.

Which BYD models, and when

HUBCO did not name the first models to be assembled. According to AHL, management plans to add BYD models in phases, picking the price segments and vehicle types with the most sales potential, and "does not intend to launch models indiscriminately".

At the start the plant will rely entirely on imported parts and materials, with local content rising gradually. That matters for buyers: a car assembled from imported kits saves on the duty paid on a fully built import, but the big price gains usually come only when local parts replace imported ones over several years.

What it means for buyers

Local assembly is the step that could bring the price of its cars down and shorten waiting times, but no new prices have been announced, and nobody should assume a cut until BYD and HUBCO publish a price list.

If you are planning to buy an electric or hybrid car on finance, run the monthly instalment on our car financing calculator and compare the running cost with petrol on the fuel cost calculator. For charging, see our earlier story on BYD flash charging in Pakistan.

What to watch

The next markers are the first locally assembled car off the line, the first model announced for local assembly, and its ex-factory price. We will add them to this story as they come.