Bahum Global to Set Up Battery and Electric Scooter Assembly Line in Pakistan

Bahum Global, the renewable-energy arm of Karachi-based Bahum Associates — a name in Pakistan's power and energy sector since 1984 — has announced plans to set up an integrated battery and electric scooter assembly line in Pakistan, layering local assembly on top of its existing import and distribution business. The move positions the company to capture a slice of two converging markets: solar-storage batteries and the rapidly growing two-wheeler electrification segment.

In an interview with Engineering Post, Athar Hayat, CEO of Bahum Global, framed the move as a natural extension of four decades of experience in power and energy supply. From its 1984 origins serving conventional power needs, the group expanded into renewables and storage as solar demand accelerated through the 2020s, and is now stepping into manufacturing rather than remaining purely a trader and distributor.

The two-product strategy

Bahum Global's assembly line is structured to serve two adjacent demand pools that share supply-chain components:

• Stationary storage batteries — primarily for solar hybrid inverters and back-up applications, where rising rooftop installations have created a fast-growing replacement and new-build demand.
• Electric two-wheelers — including scooters and motorbikes targeted at urban delivery, daily commuters, and price-sensitive segments that the imported EV market has not yet served at scale.

Why assembly rather than import

For a company that has been in the import-distribution business for 40 years, the move into assembly reflects three structural shifts:

• Duty structure — assembly attracts lower aggregate import duty than completed-build-up units, particularly for components arriving as semi-knocked-down (SKD) or complete-knocked-down (CKD) kits.
• Local content rules — government incentives increasingly favour local value-add, with EV-policy provisions tied to demonstrable assembly activity rather than pure import.
• Service economics — Pakistani consumers buying batteries or e-scooters increasingly expect local warranty support and parts availability, which is structurally easier to deliver from an assembly base than from a pure import operation.

What sets Bahum apart from pure importers

The Pakistani EV two-wheeler market is currently dominated by a handful of Chinese-built imports — Jolta, Metro, and a flurry of smaller direct-import brands. Bahum's pitch is its established service network from four decades of conventional power equipment, allowing it to underwrite battery and scooter sales with credible after-sales infrastructure across multiple cities. That is the same structural advantage Atlas Honda and Yamaha have used in the conventional motorbike segment for years.