Millat is entering the electric bike market next month, with swappable batteries

Millat Group of Industries, whose flagship is Millat Tractors Limited, says it will launch electric motorcycles in Pakistan next month. The company describes a dedicated EV production facility as ready, and says some models will use swappable battery technology.

What it has not published: model names, prices, battery capacity, range per charge, or top speed. Until those are on a price list, nothing about this launch can be compared with what is already on the road.

Why the dealer network is the real story

Millat says the bikes will be supported through its existing network of more than 700 dealerships and workshops.

That is the part that matters, and it is the part every EV bike brand in Pakistan has struggled with. A new electric bike company can get a bike to market. What it usually cannot do is get you a controller, a charger or a battery pack in Sahiwal or Nawabshah when something fails eighteen months later. A tractor group that already has service points across rural Punjab and Sindh starts with an answer to that question, which is more than most entrants have had.

Swappable batteries point the same way. The battery is the expensive part of an electric bike and the part that degrades. A swap model turns it from a replacement bill into a service you pay for, if the swap stations actually exist.

What Millat already does

Millat Tractors is one of the two large tractor assemblers in Pakistan. The group is also the local partner in Hyundai Nishat, which assembles Hyundai passenger vehicles here. That gives it assembly experience with road vehicles, not only farm machinery.

What to ask when the prices land

When the price list appears next month, these are the numbers that decide whether an electric bike is worth it against a Rs 250,000 petrol 70cc:

• The on-road price with the battery included, not the bike-only price
• Battery capacity in kilowatt-hours and the warranty on it in years or charge cycles
• Realistic range with a rider and a pillion, not the brochure figure
• The cost of a replacement pack, or the monthly swap subscription
• Charging time on a normal household socket

The running-cost case for an electric bike in Pakistan is strong on paper. Petrol is Rs 392.05 a litre after Wednesday's cut, and a 70cc doing 45 kilometres to the litre costs about Rs 8.71 a kilometre in fuel. A unit of electricity at a protected domestic slab is a fraction of that. Work out what your current bike actually costs you a month with our fuel cost calculator, then compare it when the Millat numbers are public.

We track official bike prices from the makers' own lists and will add Millat's electric models the day they are notified.