HUBCO got into power generation, as the first IPP three decades ago, and now is the country’s biggest IPP, which directly or indirectly operates plants with a combined capacity of 2289 MW. It is, through its subsidiary Mega Motors, going into the electric vehicle sector in partnership with Chinese EV giant BYD. It has not limited itself to vehicles, but has, through another subsidiary, HUBCO Green, started setting up chargers at petrol pumps. It has set up eight chargers across Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore in collaboration with Pakistan State Oil, Attock Refinery Limited and PARCO Gunvor.
These chargers are just the beginning of a network that will usher in the EV revolution. One of the biggest hurdles to conversion from fuelled vehicles to electric is the availability of charging stations. Theoretically, vehicle chargers can be kept at home, and vehicles charged overnight, but that would only work for city driving with a return to home (and the charger) every night. The availability of petrol pumps everywhere has enabled the spread of fuelled vehicles. One of the advantages of the HUBCO Green chargers is that it is AC-based rather than DC. While DC chargers have an output of between 3.3 kW and 20 kW, AC chargers have an output of between 50 kW and 350kW. True, DC-based chargers are much cheaper to install, but that is not that great a consideration for commercial use. One disadvantage of such fast chargers is that they are hard on the battery. Since EVs are much more dependent on their batteries than anything else, that is a strong argument for DC chargers. The AC-based chargers also take less time to charge a vehicle fully, so the problem of long lines at charging stations remains. Of course, that is a problem for the future.
The government should realize that it has to tackle problems that should already have been tackled, namely the electrical infrastructure that a large number of EVs will require. The transmission and distribution infrastructure is unable to handle domestic, industrial or agricultural use, and is not ready for what will easily be the biggest consumer of electricity in the country. The integration of such renewables as solar, wind and water into this mix is essential, for it does not make sense to run EVs on thermal-generated electricity.
