Yet another effort to produce
local electric car in Pakistan

Pakistan’s 75th birth anniversary coincided with news claiming to have produced a prototype of the country’s first electric car—the mode of transportation societies are forced to adopt in the wake of the impacts of climate change.
The producers of the car named Nur-E 75 unveiled it as Pakistan’s first locally manufactured electric car though at least two such efforts are known in the recent past. The first was made by Dr. Jamil Ahmed Khan at NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, and another by Dr. Abid Karim at Usman Institute of Technology (UIT)—now a university.
UIT’s effort has also entered a mature phase and the innovators from the university led by Dr. Abid Karim are busy converting Suzuki into an electric car. He says they are waiting for the kits while their project is complete.
Meanwhile, Nur-E 75 has been produced by a non-profit organization DICE Foundation in collaboration with NED University of Engineering and Technology, DHA Suffa University, National College of Arts, Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) Punjab, National University of Sciences and Technology, Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, Amreli Steels, PSG and Kruddson Aluminum.
DICE is a US-based non-profit organization run by expatriate Pakistanis who have designed the prototype in collaboration with academia and industry.
The five-seater hatchback has a top speed of 127 kilometers per hour and will be introduced in the market at the end of 2024, a Dice Foundation statement says.
The car takes eight hours to get fully charged, after which it can run for 210 kilometers. It costs around Rs 4 million.
Dice Foundation Founder and Chairman Dr. Khurshid Qureshi termed the car a “gamechanger both for Pakistan’s economy as well as for the well-being of the common man”.
Dr. told the media that the work started in 2019 after TEVTA and Dice Foundation announced plans to develop Pakistan’s first electric vehicle. A ceremony had been organized to unveil the concept design of the car and MoU signing at the TEVTA Secretariat in Lahore.
DICE’s plans are not restricted to Nur-E 75 only, it has also planned to develop a sedan and a small SUV in the next two phases.
Nur-E 75, according to the producers, will consist of 60 percent imported parts while 40 percent be locally made.
In other words, the motor and battery—the two most essential components of the vehicle—will be imported and have a say in the assessment of the cost. However, the DICE chief says the level of local parts will hit 80 percent by 2026.
He said the battery pack has been designed and developed at DICE Energy Innovation Centre at NED University; exterior design visualization was developed at NCA, Lahore. Detailed computer-aided engineering was done at DICE automotive CAE Centre at DSU Karachi.
Fabrication and testing were done by DICE, NCA, and TEVTA teams mostly using the facility of TEVTA Punjab. Subsystems/components have been developed or acquired from the existing vendor base (Amreli Steels, PSG, Kruddsons, and others) or aftermarket.
He said some systems imported will be indigenized later. He said the vehicle control was done by the DICE team, locally. – KARACHI: ER