Hub Power Company (Hubco) has said that BYD vehicle production in Pakistan will initially rely entirely on imported raw materials and components, with localisation increasing gradually over time. Hubco management said at a corporate briefing held on 20 October 2026 that the long-term objective is to localise up to 80 percent of the vehicle, which should improve cost competitiveness and reduce reliance on imports. The vehicles will be assembled at the $150 million plant in Gharo, Sindh, which is being developed with Mega Motor Company, a Hubco associate, and is planned to have an annual production capacity of around 25,000 vehicles. The plant marks BYD’s move from importing vehicles to assembling them locally in Pakistan, a step that depends heavily on how quickly local suppliers can be brought into the process.
Topline Securities said the BYD plant is expected to begin operations within the next four to five weeks, by mid-December. Hubco management is targeting an initial sales run rate of approximately 1,000 to 1,500 BYD vehicles per month as production ramps up, according to the brokerage house. BYD plans to introduce additional models through a phased approach, focusing on segments that can generate meaningful sales volumes. The timeline follows earlier delays, since the plant had been scheduled to start in the first half of the 2025-26 financial year before the date moved to the second half of 2026. In July, BYD Pakistan said that equipment installation and commissioning were under way and that the plant had entered its final stages of construction.
The imports-first approach matches what BYD Pakistan has said about its localisation strategy before. In May, the company said its plans would begin with completely knocked-down (CKD) operations, in which vehicles are assembled domestically from imported kits, while the share of locally sourced components rises gradually. Danish Khaliq, vice president for sales and strategy at BYD Pakistan, said a consistent policy framework of at least 10 years, with a clear difference between completely built-up (CBU) and CKD structures, is needed to encourage real localisation instead of short-term trading. The 80 percent target mentioned by Hubco is therefore a long-term goal that depends on supplier development and on policy conditions staying stable, and the briefing did not set out a timeline for reaching it.
The briefing also pointed to the competition the plant will face. According to Topline Securities, Lucky Cement told analysts on Tuesday that competition in the electric vehicle (EV) segment remains intense, particularly from Chinese CBU vehicles. Lucky Cement aims to begin local production of EV models by the first quarter of calendar year 2027, with volumes and model offerings expected to increase gradually in later quarters. Charging infrastructure is part of the same picture, and HUBCO Green has established 19 public DC fast-charging stations across a network of about 1,300 kilometres from Karachi to Peshawar, according to Profit. For BYD, how fast localisation rises after the first vehicles come off the line will largely decide whether locally assembled models can compete on price with imported ones.
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