Skip to content

Thought Behind Things · Sep 22, 2025 · 1:51:07

Pakistan's electric scooter winner isn't selling to bike owners

Saad Farrukh, CEO of Evee, walks Muzamil through the journey from a 200-square-foot McLeod Road spare-parts shop to leading Pakistan's electric two-wheeler market — why scooters and not bikes, why women and the elderly are the real growth, and why every major VC in the country said no.

with Saad Farrukh

12 min read

A 200-square-foot shop on McLeod Road

The episode opens with Muzamil framing a thesis he has been chasing across this Endeavor Pakistan series — that despite a brutal downturn, real winners are finally emerging in categories that everyone said would never work in Pakistan. Electric two-wheelers is one of them. His guest is Saad Farrukh, CEO of Evee, the company that now leads the segment.

Saad’s origin story has nothing to do with electric vehicles. He was born in Karachi in 1989, raised in Lahore, and grew up watching his father run a spare-parts shop on McLeod Road. The family business was in auto components — two-wheeler, three-wheeler, four-wheeler, retail and wholesale all mixed together. “We belong to the Chiniot Sheikh family,” he tells Muzamil. “Over there it’s very hard to pick a person who is into the job. We are the maimans of Punjab.”

He finished his bachelor’s in finance at Lahore School of Economics in 2011, took one extra year to do an MBA in marketing, and joined his father in 2012. The first day on the job is the moment he keeps returning to. He had walked in expecting to make business decisions. Instead, customers arrived and there were not enough seats in the cramped 200-square-foot shop, so he had to give up his chair. His father then, very candidly, asked him to bring tea. “That was my first job at work, completing my MBA, like sixteen years of education, and that is my job.”

He says it without bitterness. The point he wants Muzamil to land on is the one he thinks first-generation graduates in Punjab miss — that joining the family shop is not a failure mode, and that nobody should be hard on themselves or on their kids for taking that path. He never sent out a CV. He never gave a job interview for himself. He knew this was where he was going.

The shift from two-stroke to four-stroke — and an opening

What changed his role in the shop was a generational shift in the underlying product. When he joined in 2012, the Pakistani two-wheeler market was completing a transition from two-stroke engines to four-stroke. His father’s traditional supply lines ran through Europe and Taiwan, which dominated two-stroke. The four-stroke business was sourced from China — and that became Saad’s territory.

He started travelling to China two or three times a year. He moved the shop from purely walk-in retail to a distribution network, appointing dealers in every city so customers no longer had to come to McLeod Road. By 2017 he had spotted a new sub-segment — cargo loaders, the three-wheeler delivery vehicles that were just starting to enter the Pakistani market. A few customers were already asking for spare parts. He started building a list.

When he told his father he wanted to import the parts, the reply was characteristically blunt: “You will bring parts that you will not be able to add up.” That was the only intervention. The clarity was that this would be Saad’s project — his father would not run interference, but he would not help either. By the time Saad realised the business he wanted to build required a full assembly plant rather than a spare-parts catalogue, he had already committed. “I had heard this work takes six months. It took three and a half years.”

The cargo loader bet that did not work

The factory took until late 2020 to fully license. The first formal shipment of cargo loaders did not move until early 2021. By that point, the market had moved on. Players had settled, dealer networks were locked in, consumers had picked their brands. Saad spent eighteen months trying to push the product through a saturated market, giving credit he did not have, taking discounts that hurt margins, and watching the cash flow on both the new business and the parent spare-parts business turn negative.

By the third quarter of 2022, the situation was bad enough that he needed a new product. The factory was built. The team was hired. Walking away was not an option. The pivot to electric scooters did not come from a policy document or a market study. It came from his own China trips. From 2010 onwards, every time he visited, he saw more electric two-wheelers on the road. Somewhere in the back of his mind he had started thinking that he would not ride a motorcycle in Pakistan — that as an adult Chiniot Sheikh, the bike was not the right vehicle for him. The scooter was. And the electric scooter, increasingly, was the future.

In 2020, while still waiting on the cargo loader licence, he had quietly imported ten to fifteen sample electric scooters from China — different colours, designs and specs — and used them to figure out what worked. By 2022, that two-year unconscious market research suddenly mattered. He decided to connect the dots.

Why he refused to do an electric bike

Muzamil pushes hard on this point, because the obvious move would have been to electrify the motorcycle — the vehicle that Pakistan already understood. Saad is precise about why he refused.

By the time he received his EDB licence as the seventeenth player in electric two-wheelers, sixteen companies had already tried electric bikes. He watched them, and he drew three conclusions. First, the motorcycle chassis is engineered as a fuel vehicle, not as an electric one — converting it imports compromises on both sides. Second, the pitch to a fuel-bike owner is fundamentally a savings pitch, and savings pitches do not survive contact with reality once the customer realises the output is lower, that he cannot ride it rough and tough, and that he cannot put his whole family of four on it. Third, and most damning, the perceived value collapses. “If I have spent 250,000 rupees and I am going on the road, how would you know I have spent 250,000? For you I have only spent 150,000. So the perceived value of that product even today is 150,000. Even though I have spent 250,000, I do not even get the feel-good factor.”

Saad’s read of the failed players was not bitter — it was grateful. “They did not tell me, but they made me understand very well that I should not do bikes. I should do scooters.”

The consumer Pakistan was not selling to

By the time Muzamil asks for current numbers, the picture is clear. Evee delivered 800 units in year one. 8,000 in year two. The target for 2025 is 25,000. They have already hit it cumulatively. They have over 100 dealerships across Pakistan and they are now the segment leader.

Muzamil asks the obvious question — what is the single biggest driver? Saad refuses to pick from the menu of market acceptance, Gen Z openness, or government policy. The real answer, he says, is about a consumer Pakistan was never serving in the first place. “The core reason is that we have given our consumer independence.” His target buyer is the person who cannot afford a car and does not want a bike — the commuter doing two, five, fifteen, thirty kilometres a day, currently dependent on a ride-hailing app, a friend, a family member, a rickshaw, or a bus. None of those were customers of the existing motorcycle industry.

The data confirms the structural shift. In the conventional two-wheeler market, women made up less than 0.1 percent of riders. In Evee’s customer base, women are 20 percent. “It means that my market size, if not double, very easily becomes 1.5x.” He also sells to the elderly through his three-wheel personal mobility product. The total addressable market for two-wheelers in Pakistan, he argues, was never the two crore bikes already on the road. Those riders were already served. The real market was the people who were not on a vehicle at all.

What the policy actually looks like from the factory floor

Muzamil presses on the Punjab government’s stated target — 30 percent of new two-wheeler sales electric by 2030. From the outside, it looks aggressive. From inside the industry, Saad thinks the number will be hit earlier. The total electric two-wheeler market crossed roughly 25,000 units in 2024 and is on track for 100,000 in 2025 — a 4x year-on-year jump. He expects the next fiscal year to land somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000.

His comment on government policy is unusually pointed for a podcast guest. “We talk a lot about our government. I do too, personally. But in my two years in electric vehicles, I would say the government cannot be more supportive of this industry.” He points to the GST gap as evidence. Fuel two-wheelers carry 18 percent GST. Electric two-wheelers carry 1 percent. Customs duties on the electric side are minimal. “It is not just intent. It is not just dry support. The policy is actually supportive.”

The three-wheeler story is different, and he is clear about why. The end consumer — the rickshaw driver — cannot afford the vehicle. He has 25,000 to 50,000 rupees in his pocket against a 400,000-rupee unit. The business model only works if a dealer finances him, which means the OEM is always one step removed from its own customer. Saad walked away from three-wheelers for that exact reason. The only way the segment electrifies, in his view, is through a direct government purchase order. No private operator will burn cash chasing a market where the unit economics do not close.

The unit economics that make the pitch land

The economic case for Evee’s scooter, by Saad’s own breakdown, is now hard to argue with. Two units of electricity charge it fully — roughly 150 rupees, for 60 to 70 kilometres of range. That is a cost per kilometre of around 2 rupees. The comparison is not just to a fuel bike at 8 to 10 rupees per kilometre. It is to ride-hailing apps and to dependency on a relative’s vehicle.

Maintenance is the second piece. There is no oil change. The brand offers a twenty-month after-sales warranty with home service. The graphene batteries come from what he describes as a renowned Chinese supplier and have a tried-and-tested decade behind them.

But Saad is careful to flag that he does not pitch the economic case the way founders normally do. “I do not look at it like that. For me, it is like you buy your phone. When you buy your phone, you do not think how much you will sell it for two years later. You think what value it is adding to your life.” His target buyer is not optimising a spreadsheet. They are buying their first personal vehicle.

The VC pitch that went nowhere

By the time the conversation turns to financing, Saad is direct in a way that the segment rarely is on a Pakistani podcast. He bootstrapped from the parent business through the cargo loader years. He survived the pivot because the factory was already built — he only needed to alter it, not to break ground. He took $300,000 to $400,000 of personal capital across the early years to get the EV plant operational.

Then he pitched every venture capital firm in Pakistan. “I do not think there is any renowned VC in Pakistan I have not pitched, directly or indirectly.” None of them invested. He started in 2023 and through the first half of 2024, which he and Muzamil agree was the worst possible window — VCs were conservative, hardware was out of favour, and the swappable battery thesis was the only EV model getting attention.

He is not bitter about the rejections. “I will speak very positively about pitching to the VCs, because I would prepare for a week before every pitch — what slides, what data, what numbers, what should go where. I did not get the money, but the preparation became material I used the next day in my own business.” By the time he was profitable enough not to need the capital, he stopped pitching.

Last fiscal year, Evee did $7 million in revenue. The target for the current year is 3x.

The Chinese contrast and the answer to “what should we fix”

Muzamil closes the conversation with the question he has been asking every guest in this Endeavor Pakistan series — if you could fix one thing about doing business in Pakistan, what would it be? Saad’s answer is one of the sharper ones in the series. He refuses the premise. “Do not fix the industry, fix yourself. Fix your business, fix your numbers, fix your product, fix your service, fix your team. We as a startup do not have the weight to fix anything outside our locus of control.”

He extends the same point to the China comparison. He has been travelling there for fifteen years, speaks some of the language, has friends in most major cities. The cleanest way he can describe the difference is wind direction. “They are going with the wind. We are going against the wind. And sometimes our external forces feel that we are not enjoying it enough, so let us throw a stone from above, let us add a little more difficulty.” The conclusion he draws from that is not despair — it is that anyone who builds something real in Pakistan against that headwind has earned every inch of it.

By the end of the conversation, Muzamil reflects on what he has been hearing across this series — ordinary founders, not textile barons, building $15 to $100 million businesses in categories everyone said would not work. Saad gets the last word, via a story about his masters professor who had been asked, in the troubled early 2010s, what would become of Pakistan. The professor went into flashback, remembered the Bhutto era, remembered the seventies, and laughed. The country had been written off then too. It was not, in the end, written off.

Evee’s number for 2025 — 25,000 units, 100-plus dealerships, segment leader, fully bootstrapped — is one more data point in the same direction.

Full transcript
Muzamil

सालों ख़बतीना अजरात. Welcome back to another episode of thought behind things. आज हमारे साथ एक बहुत ही ख़ास मेहमान मौजूद हैं but उनको introduce करवाने से पहले पहले तो मैं आपको बताना चाहूंगा कि आजकल हमारी जो series चल रही है that is with Endeavor Pakistan. If you'd like to know more about these guys, there is a link down below. They run a very innovative accelerator. A global company by the way. उसका जो पाकिस्तानी chapter है, उनके साथ हमने partner करके we're trying to find the 50 most exciting startups slash businesses in Pakistan और उसी के अंदर हमारी आज की भी जो conversation है वह अपनी industry के अंदर they're the fastest growing and at this point in time my understanding is they are also the largest in this segment as well. इस तरह के इस segment को हमने दो तीन साल पहले भी cover किया था. बड़े सारे उस time पर लोग नए shares भी थे. वह कहते हैं कभी भी नहीं चलेगा Pakistan में. क्या बातें कर रहे हैं? But वह सारे नाज़ुक मोड़ और, you know, जो downturn था उसके बाद finally we actually have seeming winners जो कि अब इस category में emerge करना शुरू हो गए हैं, profitable हैं, grow कर रहे हैं. Conversation जो आज हमारी है it is about electric scooters या electric two wheelers. Three wheelers भी I believe इनके हैं, not in the more रिक्शा sense but we'll know more about that. BYD की team के साथ conversation की थी and they have some very exciting plans for Pakistan and it seems like कि जो electric bandwagon है उस पर finally Pakistan चढ़ गया है. We might as well be able to leapfrog our way कि हम जो दरमियान में gas वाली गाड़ियां हमारे पास इतनी अच्छी नहीं थी शायद electric के ऊपर. अब हम diversity भी देखें, हम, you know, opportunities और अच्छी quality की चीज़ें भी देखें. साथ ही government overall federal government भी but Punjab government particularly उनके electric vehicle policy. इस साल हम हमने मारीम औरंजेब साहिबा से भी बात की थी उन्होंने बड़ी सारी different, you know, चीज़ें बताईं कि जी हम subsidy भी provide कर रहे हैं. उनके targets बड़े aggressive हैं. वह कह रहे हैं कि हम 30% by twenty thirty तमाम जो गाड़ियां या जो motorbikes बिकेंगी हम चाहते हैं कि वह twenty thirty तक 30% electric हों जो कि बड़ा aggressive number है. It sounds easy but it's not that easy अगर आप देखें scale को और overall infrastructure को. And so it's important to understand जो actually लोग बैठे हुए हैं, जो players हैं, वह किस तरह से इसको देख रहे हैं? क्या उनको लगता है? किस तरह से growth हो सकती है? Policy के बारे में उनके क्या ख़यालात हैं? वग़ैरह वग़ैरह. इन तमाम चीज़ों को आज हम देखेंगे. Again, Pakistan में जो हमारा पच्चीस million के करीब total registered vehicles हैं. उसमें से almost 3,000,000 गाड़ी हैं और बाकी तकरीबन 22,000,000 जो हैं वह आपकी motorbikes हैं. That's the scale versus for every roughly समझ लें for every car there are 10 motorbikes. That is the size of the actual consumer. Punjab की अगर हम बात करते हैं तो total 20,000,000 यह जो online number है we don't know the exact numbers हमारे guest हमें बेहतर बता देंगे. 20,000,000 total आपकी vehicles registered हैं जिसमें से 70% उसमें motorbikes हैं and then लोहौर को अगर हम देखते हैं तो उसमें 6,200,000 है जिसमें से 4,200,000 again almost 70% motorbikes हैं. So it's a huge segment और चूंकि वह इतनी सारी हैं तो इसमें smoke का भी एक problem है जो कि हम हर साल October, November अभी एक डेढ़ दो महीने की बात है. फिर से वह कब शुरू हो जाएगी. तो उसके अंदर we do need to eventually move towards electric and clean forms of, you know, mobility. And so मैं अभी guest को ही बोल रहा था right before starting कि it seems like the stars have aligned and Pakistan की जो EV revolution है वह शायद वाकई pan out कर जाए because infrastructure भी बिचना शुरू हो गया है, investor interest भी आ गया है, government की policy भी आ गई है और एक तरह से requirement भी होगी यह novelty से हटकर. इस साथ, इन तमाम चीज़ों को deconstruct करने के लिए हमारे साथ आज मौजूद हैं. साथ फरोह who is the CEO of a fusion engineering. Despite the best efforts of governments to move the world apart, entrepreneurs are bringing us closer together as we see innovation literally everywhere. The reason I love it never so much is you realize that you could create something anywhere.

Guest

Companies can also come, like, you know, from anywhere. It can come from Brazil. It can come from Mexico. It can come from Istanbul.

Muzamil

If you're ambitious, go to Europe, get a job or to The US. But here you're mega ambitious. Stay home and build. This episode of Thought Behind Things is presented in partnership with Endeavor Pakistan. मैं थोड़ा सा conversation को start करूंगा. I'd love to get your insight on जो मैंने पूरा intro दिया उसमें तमाम चीज़ों पर but I wanna first understand you because I know that you did not come from like hardcore business automotive experience. You know, where were you born? Early life कहां पर गुज़ारी? What were the themes that enabled you to come towards this side?

Guest 2

So I was born in कराची जी back in 1989. उसके बाद my upbringing has been in लाहौर. मेरे parents मेरी birth से पहले लाहौर में थे. So सारी upbringing लाहौर में रही है और जो जो summer holidays हैं वह क्रांची को ज़रूरती रही है बहुत ज़्यादा. But the real life has been in लाहौर since the start. Schooling, university, everything has been here. Growing up I have always seen my father. He has been one of my role models as well. A Martix shop है McCloud Road पर and my father had been working there since a long time. Since childhood I have seen him working over there and that too in again two three wheel segment for the spare parts. I see. So all my life I have seen my father, my uncles, my you know cousins all working into the same segment, the same market in लाहौर और कराची or whatever it is in Pakistan but it have been the same market. Auto motorbikes

Muzamil

के spare parts and all of this? Yes, motorbikes, three wheel, four wheel but somewhere or the other remaining in the auto. Interesting. यह wholesale का business था या was it more like retail के यार बस आपने वहां पर parts लगाए में किसी ने खरीदना वह खरीदे और mechanic left right कोई mechanic है वह आकर काम कर देगा?

Guest 2

It was a mix of everything. So we have been dealing into retail as well. We have been dealing with the wholesale as well. कुछ uncles हैं वह सिर्फ retail करते थे. कुछ सिर्फ wholesale करते थे. But it's a mix of everything. So, you know, in our family there was a complete mixture if you have to go to two wheel, three wheel, four wheel, retail, wholesale anything it's there. Interesting और यह hard core business है, सबके सब business में. Yeah-yeah. We belong to Trinity Shake family. Right. Over there it's very hard to pick a person who is you know into the job. Guys are the the maimans of Punjab. Yeah yeah, we are the maimans of पंजाबी. So we add one into the business. We have always seen business and you know in and out of everyone. Interesting.

Muzamil

University आपने लाहौर से ही की?

Guest 2

जी, I mean लाहौर से की it's from लाहौर School of Economics. The Bachelor's was in 2011 and then the Master's was in 2012. अच्छा साथ साथ ही आपने and किस field में था? What was the major? So the Bachelor's was in finance. I am a hardcore finance guy by the way. चूंकि मेरी finance अच्छी थी और marketing बहुत weak थी तो मैंने कहा marketing के अंदर कुछ नया try करती हैं. Right. तो MBA के अंदर हमने फिर marketing ली थी मैंने just to try to get something out of that as well. Interesting and so graduation के बाद what did you do? Family business या आपने कहा क्या थोड़ा सा ज़्यादा experience लेते हैं market में? I think मेरे पास experience की बहुत option थी नहीं. Since I was growing up, I knew very well that I have to land with my father. Even before my completing my studies in my college days, even in my school days I used to go to shop. भेजे थे जबरदस्ती मेरी अम्मा का बहुत शौक था कि यह जल्दी काम सीखे. अब्बा का भी mood था कि बस आ जाए. MBA भी जो की है वह बड़ी मुश्किल से एक साल की मैंने उनसे छूट ली कि एक साल मुझे एक extra दे दें ताकि मैं MBA complete कर लूं. Right. And but over the period of time I knew it very well that I had to go to the shop. मैंने कहीं job interview नहीं दिया था, कहीं CV नहीं बनाई. बहुत जगह test ज़रूर दिए but they were for my friends, not for myself. Interesting. So all all along I always knew that I had to join my father and in 2012 I formally joined him. Tell me the scale of

Muzamil

the shop. I mean was this like a huge big conglomerate business? या was this like a standard retail shop you know SME style बहुत सारे Pakistan में exist करते हैं. Did you see growing up? Did you see कि यार अच्छा होता है ना बीकनाहों से आपने high school किया, LSE से आप पढ़े तो aspirationally was joining the shop or joining that business what you thought कि बस ठीक है, this is this is it. मैं यह करता हूं and it's fine या were you a bit more hungry कि ok no I wanna do bigger and better things and maybe I can either scale this business or I have to do something else?

Guest 2

देखिए, I completed my master's from Lahore School of Economics. That was a very different vibe than going to McLaude Road at a shop which is probably-probably a 200 square foot shop. Over there you have a rack of square parts. You have like my father, me, the customers, the employees, they all sit and there. So it's like very congested place and interestingly my first job at my shop दो हज़ार बारह में MBA करने के बाद I am going to my shop expecting कि now I am doing, you know, going to take decisions, life decisions over there, business decisions. But going there my first job was that some customers came in so I had to leave my chair so that they can sit because limited seats हैं वहां पर. दो लोग अगर आ गई हैं तो दो लोग को उठना है. Total seats उतनी है वहां पर and my bud just randomly sat on a very very easy mode, very candid कि बेटा चाय ले आना. That was my first job at work completing my MBA like sixteen years of education and that is my job but I think you were affected with the age 30. I मैंने कहा भाई तो MBA होगा अपने घर में. Yeah yeah yeah. यहां से internship. I think that was that उससे perfect start नहीं हो सकता था मेरे career का जिधर वह पहली job में वह ego तो उन्होंने side पर कह दी थी कि बेटा यह तो नहीं चलेगी यहां पर. So now you are at work, ठीक आपने पढ़ाई की everything is there but over here we have to do work. So it was a comparatively smaller shop, it was a SME business. Right. My father used to, you know, work over there. We, he used to import some spare parts from China and Italy, Europe Again, two wheeler, three wheels जो west पहुंचा था and जो three wheels होते थे and यहां पर वह sale करते थे distribution network के through. So that's what I coped into. Interesting.

Muzamil

So this is very interesting. You work, you guys weren't really tapping into a local distribution network. आप लोगों ने अपने भी एक sort of, I am assuming कि जो local distribution से भी आ रहे होते थे जो active moving parts होंगे वह तो आप रख ही रहे होंगे या exclusively आपने अपनी ही inventory बनाई हुई थी?

Guest 2

So, हम लोग उस time पर जब मैंने join किया था तो उस वक्त एक shift आ रहा था जिसमें आज fuel से EVs पर shift आ रहा है. Right. उस वक्त एक shift था two stroke से four stroke के अंदर. Right. So, दो हज़ार चार पांच के अंदर shift start हुआ था, दो हज़ार दस बारह के अंदर यह actually pursue हो चुका था. So मेरे dad का जो traditional business था वह two stroke के spare parts का था which was more aligned from Europe and Taiwan और जो four stroke का business था that was more aligned from China. Right. So वह एक gap थोड़ा सा create हो चुका था and when I came in तो उसके बाद एक वैसे ही shift की थोड़ी सी मुझे space automatically मिल गई enter होने के लिए and so उसके उससे पहले जैसे distribution network नहीं होता था. लोग हमारी shop पर आते थे सामान खरीदने. मेरे आने के बाद distribution network start हो गया. हमने हर शहर के अंदर कोई कोई dealer distributors बना दिए. उनको हमने directly sale अपना appoint कर दिया as a dealer. So people don't have to come to us directly. They can just buy from them at the same prices.

Muzamil

So that was a bit of change what we did at that time. Interesting. मैं थोड़ा सा off tension जाऊंगा क्योंकि यह theme आपकी बड़ी मज़े की और I feel like it, you know, millions of पाकिस्तानी connect with something like this. In fact, there's a someone in my team जो कि, you know, he's going through the same dilemma. So he's doing computer science किसी startup में जाना है, मैंने यह करना है, वह करना है या मैंने jewelry business में जाना है. That to him seems very you know conventional. वह इतना stylish sexy नहीं है, right? And I feel like a lot of particularly in Punjab जहां पर you have a lot of conventional काफ़ी in a lot of cases rural but in a lot of cases also conventional businessman, first generation university going students हैं. वह graduate कर रहे हैं और वह इस conflict से गुज़र रहे हैं, right? You actually went into the business but you didn't stick there. You didn't let it be like, ok, मुझे इसकी कोई समझ नहीं आ रही. मैंने तो कुछ और पढ़ावा था. मैं यहां पर क्या time ज़्यादा कर रहा हूं. You actually went in and you decided, ok, what's the value I can add and actually streamline this? कि वाले साहब ने एक core foundation तो बना दी. अब मैं उसको आगे किस्तान ले जा सकता हूं. तो I wanna understand your thoughts on that. And also, I'm sure in the first few years and over time, आपका ना opinion बड़ा बदला होगा. First few years में आपने देखा होगा, आपने कहा होगा यार यह experience होता है, right? Someone who's been doing that they may not be very technically savvy but they understand the pulse of the market in a lot of ways a lot more and so what was your having spent those years what was your overall analysis and experience like working in that business?

Guest 2

So, पहले मैं फिर एक story share करता then I can come to the previous part as well. So, जिस दिन आपने कहा ना कि हमें लगता है कि हमें सब पता है but they are the real king makers. So, so हमारे यहां में cloud road market थी and वहां पर timing है कि you come in the morning at twelve and आपकी shop साढ़े सात बजे बंद हो जाएगी. This is the normal time of the all of the market. मैं अब बस बहुत ज़्यादा खफा होता था कि this is not the right time, हम साढ़े सात बंद करते हैं. So it's after like four five years of my joining कि अब थोड़े सी काम करना, थोड़ा सा आ भी गया. तो मैंने कहा यह तो थोड़ा सा अब हमें भी input देना है ना तो अब तो मतलब मैं इसको ठीक कर देना अब वापस आऐंगे and हम छह बजे बंद कर रहे होंगे. So शुरू के कोई तीन चार दिन I was at my shop at 10AM. So मैंने कहा सुबह तो time पर आऐंगे ताकि सारा काम पहले कर लें. By twelve 1PM मतलब मैं अकेला था. मतलब कोई भी नहीं था पूरी like even market में लोगों की shops नहीं खुली हुई, लोग खुद नहीं आए हुए, customer नहीं है. Like तीन चार घंटे मैंने कुछ नहीं किया. So the workflow comes after three 4PM. So packing वाले you know जो लोग सामान हम you know pack करते हैं वह लेकर जाते हैं उसको book कराते हैं all the traditional work goes out. वह सात बजे से पहले खत्म नहीं होगा. अब me तो जिस समय मैंने कहा मेरे पास choice नहीं थी. I knew what I had to do and I was not even looking for the choice I would say. I work a bit differently. I think every, we should give margin to everyone to work differently as well and because हर किसी का process है थोड़ा different है. For me मुझे उस choice की बहुत ज़्यादा कहीं ज़रूरत नहीं थी. I was very happy कि at least मुझे एक platform मिल रहा है like other people have to find a job, they have to go into the market. So I was a bit on a happy side कि अच्छा एक platform है, I can you know just start from there and let's see where it goes and अंदर things work, felt very well for me and even for my other friends who went to the job market who you know went anywhere, it's sorted out for them as well. So eventually तो सब अपना करस्ता कहीं ना कहीं बनाकर पंचा ही लेते हैं but I think nobody should be hard on themselves and nobody should be hard on the kids as well I would say. So अगर, you know, anyone wants to go to the startup, let them experience I would say because अगर let's suppose मैं बहुत ज़्यादा उस time पर कहता कि मैंने काम पर नहीं आना है and मैंने कुछ job करनी है तो it might had been an argument between me and my father. So, but I am very glad and मैं बहुत खुश हूं इसलिए कि हमें उस argument तक जाना भी नहीं पड़ा. उससे पहले ही वह conditioning शायद ऐसी हो चुकी थी कि mind में उन्होंने शायद बचपन से ही इतना feed कर दिया था कि यह ऐसे आकर कहेगा भी नहीं. Right. तो I think everyone finds their way to something or the other I would say. Makes sense. Is the shop still there?

Muzamil

Yeah-yeah, that's there. That's our core business. And so who who's looking after the shop now? Still your father? So, my

Guest 2

father is looking after that shop but उस business को भी हमने थोड़ा सा differently streamline कर दिया because वहां पर हमारी retail और wholesale दोनों हुआ करती थी and my father is a bit older now as well so he cannot take care that way as he used to do before. So हमने shop पर सिर्फ retail कर दिया. So wholesale के लिए we have made up you know an all ERP system and everything and we have different staff for that and they run all those things and it's a very auto pilot. तो थोड़ा सा corporatize

Muzamil

कर दिया उसको कि यार professionals को बिठा दिया और वह जा Not रहा on a very high level but still it's operating very well in अंदर लड़नाला. Right, interesting. Systems essentially integrate किया उसके अंदर. Yes. I feel like a lot of the conventional legacy businesses are just driven by a patriarch और वह ledger पर काम हो रहा होता है तो उसमें थोड़े से systems भी आप डाल दें तो फिर automation होता नहीं, हमारी market में तो पर्कियां चलती हैं जी. अच्छा, interesting. मुझे यह बताएं कि so you were there from 2012 till 2017 if I'm not wrong? Yes, at myself. 2017 is when you started this business, right? Yes. What was I mean before what led to this? दो हज़ार सत्रह में तो कोई ना इसके बारे में बात कर रहा था ना EV का कोई शोर था. How did you even get exposed to it? आप क्या thought थी जिसके ऊपर आपने सोचा कि चलो यार इधर टांग अड़ाते हैं and how did the people around you take it?

Guest 2

So मैंने जब अपने father को join किया था twin 12 में. So पहले दो तीन साल तो ज़रा समझने में लग गए, you know, काम पर आते हुए लग गए. उसके बाद अब्बा ने मुझे handover कर दिया था the China business like the imports from China. So मैं उनको handle करता था, China से imports करता था and I used to travel to China a lot like from 2010 I had been travelling twice thrice an year तो बहुत ज़्यादा immune हो चुका था China के system से. तो जब भी मैं China जाता था for my spare parts business, I used to try something new. अब motorcycle या rickshaw के अगर spare parts की बात कर रहे हैं तो let's suppose उसका एक अगर piston है तो उसमें मैं कोई innovation नहीं कर सकता. तो उसमें जो बहुत ज़्यादा मैं innovation अपनी तरफ से खत्म, packaging change देता था But I am glad कि उस time भी मैंने दो तीन नई चीज़ें try की थी other than my business. अब मैंने पूरा support किया but वह नहीं चल पाई. वह we they didn't collect. So in 2017 we Pakistan में एक नया introduction हो रहा था cargo loaders का. So three wheeler पहले passenger इच्छे चलते थे. तो एक नया product add हो रहा था cargo loader का जो pickups या shades होता यह जो motorbike के साथ पीछे जो truck का सा लगाना पड़ेगा. Exactly जी जो बहुत ही बदतमीज़ा product आपने देखा होगा यहां पर. Revive bike के पीछे वह trolley है. उसको हम कुछ बात कर रहे थे क्योंकि हम three wheel segment के space parts में deal कर ही रहे थे तो कुछ consumer आ रहे थे जो हमसे कह रहे थे कि आप इसके space parts हमें भी थे. तो 2017 मुझे बहुत अच्छे से याद है April था और मैं China जा रहा था कुछ अगले एक आध हफ्ते के अंदर तो मैं अपने बग के साथ shop पर ही बैठा हुआ था तो मैंने अबू से वैसे बात की कि इसके इस पर parts लोग मांगते तो मैं इसकी working कर रहा हूँ, मैंने list of parts बनाई है तो मैं यह parts China से purchase करूँगा as a new product वार range. तो मैंने मुझे generically वह बहुत candid कहा कि यार तुम parts लेकर आ रहे तुमको जोड़ भी नहीं लोगे. Like that was the only statement he did. तो कई दोबारा मैं उनसे debate करता हूं कि आप innovation नहीं लाते but this innovation actually came from there and it's coming from exactly. So words clicked. की कि मैंने यही orders दे दी and this and that वगैरह. सुबह मेरे साथ बैठे उन्होंने मुझे फिर again कहा कि I am getting older and so now you are starting something very different. It's not being operated from here. So you need to be very sure कि whatever has to be done, has to be done by you. So you don't expect कि मैं कहीं पर आकर intervene करने वाला हूं, मैं तुमको helplut करूंगा because इसमें बहुत effort होगा and everything. So that was again a good heads up for me कि yeah, this is an opportunity for me to do something. So वहां पर तो order दे दिया मैंने Loadors का. यहां पर पता चला कि ऐसे तो कर नहीं सकते. इसके लिए तो factory लगानी पड़ेगी.

Muzamil

तो Right. That's how I started to build a factory. आप लोग सोचते थे कि बस अब यह बस स्वाल आएगा, वह mechanics बिठाएंगे उनको गोटा करके. Exactly,

Guest 2

that's how I actually thought at that time but यहां के मालूम हुआ कि ऐसे नहीं होगा तो अब हमें factory लगानी पड़ेगी. तो जो हमारा वह पूरा business एक portfolio बना हुआ था वह पूरा change हो गया और खैर but allies been very kind. उसके बाद हमने September 17 को I started to working for the factory. एक space ली छोटी सी वहां पर उसकी construction की, equipment बनाया, सारा कुछ किया. सुना था कि यह काम छह महीने में हो जाता है, साढ़े तीन साल लग गए. COVID भी गुज़र गया और Crazy.

Muzamil

अभी तक आप market में launch नहीं कर पा रहे हो. मैं launch नहीं

Guest 2

कर पाया. कुछ एक दो shipments मैंने मंगवा ली थी किसी तरीके से but हम उसको properly execute नहीं कर पाए उस time पर which was actually very good time to launch that product. So formally मुझे सारे license government से machinery equipment सारा complete करते करते 2020 का third quarter हो चुका था. So मेरी जो पहली shipment China से फिर उसके बाद formally आई launching our brand that was in 2021 start for the Cargo Loaders. So यह जो पूरी factory बनी थी यह Cargo Loaders के लिए बनी थी. Was designed in such a way. अब उसके बाद हुआ जी कहानी थोड़ी सी तब्दील होगी. दो हज़ार सत्रह में तो वह product बहुत charming था and it was a very very new market at that time but दो हज़ार इक्कीस तक काफी players settle हो चुके थे. Dealers settle हो गए थे, distributor settle हो गए थे, consumer settle हो चुका था because चार पांच साल से वह products चला रहे थे. So now it was tough to enter the market. But anyways, अब चूंकि पूरी factory लगा ली थी तो काम तो करना था. हमने जी Lotus का काम किया. We worked out for one and a half year over there. But fortunately or unfortunately we didn't end up doing very well because उसके अंदर हमारा cash flow भी disturb रहता था because market saturated थी, we have to give credits, हमें discount भी देनी पड़ती थी, हमें सब कुछ करना पड़ता था just to sell our product. It was in twenty twenty to third quarter maybe. तब तक वह वाला scenario आ चुका था कि काफी हो गया. बहुत credit दे दिए and काफी cash flow disturb हो चुका हुआ है. काफी energy भी बंद कर चुके हुए हैं मतलब जो था हो चुका हुआ है. दूसरी तरफ जो हमारा parts वाला business है वह भी hurt हो चुका हुआ है because obviously यह अगर cash flow negative है तो वहीं से support हो रहा है. तो थोड़ा सा ज़रा गड़बड़ situation आ चुकी थी. तो that was the time when actually we thought of adding a new product. And from there the EV conception started which was related to a previous thing as well. I'll let you know about that as well. So China जब मैं previously जा ही रहा था तो अब China के अंदर from the very start like दो हज़ार दस बारह से ही हम EVs देख रहे थे. ऐसे नहीं कि वहां पर कोई नया product था. हां, I can maneuver very easily, मुझे तंगी नहीं होगी. तो for me it was a very good product. So मैं वहां पर यही सोचता था कि अगर मैं as a consumer इसको चला रहा हूं, यही जब मैं Pakistan जाता हूं तो मैं सोचता हूं कि यार bike मैंने नहीं चलानी. अच्छा Pakistan में अगर मैं bike चला रहा हूंगा तो यह कभी भी नहीं कहेंगे, मैं ही छुप रहूंगा. वह एक थोड़ा सा एक mind के अंदर like unconscious mind के अंदर वह thought चलती थी. So in 2020 मैं जब मुझे license नहीं मिला हुआ था cargo loader उसका I was in the process उसी time मैंने कोई दस पंद्रह scooters और bikes electric मंगवा लिए थे China से just as a sampling. वह different colors के थे, different designs के थे, different specifications थी. मुझे कुछ पता भी नहीं था. अच्छा अच्छा किसी दोस्त ने ले लिया था he was very kind on me but we we couldn't work on well on that product at that time. तो बस फिर हम खुद ही चलाते थे. जो factory आता था उसको दिखाते थे कि यह देखें यह product है. तो उससे बहुत ज़्यादा market research I would say कि again unconsciously वह market conscious वाला concept start हो गया था. Mhmm. So अब वह product वहां पर था दो हज़ार बाइस में company के हिलात ठीक नहीं जा रहे, कुछ चाहिए. तो वह आपस में I think कुछ match कर गया था and अब कुछ जब product चाहिए था तो that was one thing which we could have tried and फिर हमने सोचा कि अब चूंकि यह नहीं चल रहा तो कुछ तो try करना है. So let's just connect these dots together and let's see what happens. So that was the real story of how EV came into light.

Muzamil

So interesting आपने कहा कि so एक वैसे तो आपको market में वहां पर wholesale market में नज़र आ रहा था कि भाई उस के ऊपर cargo loaders आ रहा था thing. Time की वजह से time lag की वजह से you were unable to make it happen. अब आप दो हज़ार बाइस में pivot कर रहे हैं. Pivot करने में conventional mind मैं तो बेवकूफ आदमी हूं. मैं अगर देखता तो मैं कहता यार road में क्या चल रहा है? मैं देखता हूं bike चल रही है. तो मैं जाकर bike कर लेता Bike की भी I think अभी Pakistan में आ गए हैं कुछ के जो कि वह similar type की bike जो है उसको वह gas से उसमें कर देते हैं. Why scooters? Because scooters as far as I know, the only mention of scooters that I know is कि मेरी अम्मी कहती थी कि यार sixties, seventies के अंदर जो है ना वह हम scooters चलाते होते थे. तो हमने तो growing up I'm a nineties kid. I never saw any scooters, right? And so it seems like it would be a big gamble कि इस segment को अच्छा वैसे पहली बात scooter को लेकर आए Pakistan में जब consumer demand है पता नहीं है या नहीं है. दूसरा EV scooter वह तो फिर बिल्कुल ही आप कह रहे हैं कि एक नई dimension खोल रहे हैं. So were you I mean did है तो यहां पर भी on some level आएगा?

Guest 2

So, मैं हमेशा चाहता था कि कुछ थोड़ा सा different करो. जो market में एक legacy चल रही है उसमें थोड़ा सा shift होना चाहिए so that we can do something different which is known as कि we brought some change. जब मैं traditionally spare parts करता था अपने shop पर तो जिस तरह I just mentioned कि packaging change कर देते थे ताकि कुछ different हो जाए. अगर मेरा product और दूसरों का product सामने है तो कहीं से तो stand out करे कि it has some different value to it. Now talking about scooters, मुझसे पहले bikes काफी market हो रही थी. Even in EVs, I am not the first one to bring electric bikes or scooters to Pakistan. I am the first one to bring electric scooters but not electric bikes to Pakistan. So, हमारे यह जा रहा है Engineering Development Board जो license देता है for you to become an assembler or a manufacturer for two wheels. So मेरा उसमें star-one number था, यानी मुझसे पहले सोलह companies already electric bikes को experiment कर चुकी हैं more or less. So मुझसे पहले जितनी companies थीं उन सब ने electric bike की थी. अच्छा, although उन्होंने जैसा भी deliver किया, अच्छा किया, बुरा किया, but at least उन्होंने मेरी बहुत मदद की. सबसे बड़ी मदद यह की कि उन्होंने मुझे बहुत अच्छे से बता दिया कि ये दो चार चीज़ें हैं जो नहीं करनी. ये test student failed हैं.

Muzamil

So I mean this was, ये आपने सिर्फ उनके analysis पर देखा या आपने उनसे actually network किया कि भाई अच्छा मैं कर रहा हूं तो आप लोग भी कर रहे हैं तो the analysis, more of a the analysis I would say. Analysis, ok. On the analysis. जिसके अंदर से एक point यह भी था कि electric bike भी नहीं करनी.

Guest 2

I would tell you why I believe electric bike is not the right product. Firstly electric जो bike है, motorcycle, it is built as a gas engineering point of view से as a fuel vehicle, not as an electric vehicle. So firstly तो उसके अंदर, उसकी जो conception ही है वह as an electric bike है नहीं, that is as a fuel bike. Secondly, हमारे मुल्क में पिछले बीस, पच्चीस, तीस साल से bike fuel पर चलती है. अब अगर मैं आज electric bike बना देता हूँ, इसका मतलब है मेरी pitch आपको यह है कि आपको तो मैं बेचने आ नहीं रहा. अब मैं उसको sale करने जा रहा हूँ अपनी electric bike जो already fuel motorcycle चला रहा है. उसको मेरी pitch यह है कि अब आप अपनी petrol वाली motorcycle sale कर दो और आप मेरी electric bike ले लो और आपके इतने महीने के पैसे बच जाएंगे. यह मेरी pitch है उसको, to be very blunt with him. अब जब मेरे से previous companies ने उसको यह pitch दी और उसको उस electric bike पर लेकर आए तो उसने वह petrol बचाने का advantage तो लिया क्योंकि वह expect कर रहा था मेरे पैसे बचेंगे. लेकिन उसने यह कभी नहीं सोचा था कि मेरा output कम होएगा. उसने नहीं सोचा था कि मैं इसको उस तरह से you know rough and tough चला सकता हूं. So उस plus उसने यह बिल्कुल नहीं सोचा था कि bike के ऊपर वह अपनी पूरी family को बिठाता था. जिसके अंदर वह खुद चार लोग आगे पीछे बैठते थे. So जब आप electric में आते हैं तो obviously उसकी efficiency कम हो जाती है. तो electric bike मुझे personally बहुत अच्छे से अंदाज़ा हो गया था कि this is not the right product to market in Pakistan. उसके बाद lastly जो सबसे important point है for a bike to convert it into electric. It's become उसी cost बढ़ जाती है. अगर electric bike में देखता हूँ let's suppose उसकी Pakistan में retail price ढाई लाख के क़रीब आ जाती है just saying 250,000. एक normal bike की जो कि fuel को है वह 150,000 की है. अब let's suppose मैंने 250,000 खर्च लिए हैं और मैं road पर जा रहा हूँ. How would you know मैंने ढाई लाख खर्चे हैं? आपके लिए तो मैंने डेढ़ लाख खर्चे हुए हैं. तो उस product की perceived value तो आज भी ढाई लाख है. Even though मैंने ढाई लाख खर्चे हैं तो मुझे तो feel good factor भी नहीं आया. तो electric bike के and all this is my personal analysis. I may be wrong as well but this is all what figured out कि यह electric bike तो नहीं चलेगी. So like these, there were another two three things जो मेरे previous players ने बहुत अच्छे से समझा दी थी कि bike मत करना भाई, तुम scooters करना ऐसे बताया नहीं बल्किन ऐसे समझा दिया. So again, so now unconscious mind में scooters तो पहले से ही थे जब मैं चाहाना जाता था. Electric नहीं थे to be very frank initially but scooters थे. तो scooters तो एक था कि Pakistan में plus unconscious mind में एक और भी चीज़ थी. So since my brought up, मैं autos related हूँ, very much focus towards two and three wheeler related हूँ. So बचपन से मैंने देखा है कि Pakistan में हर साल बहुत innovation होती है. Bike के नए models आते हैं जिसमें उसका fuel tank के ऊपर sticker change हो जाता है और हर पांच साल बाद बड़ी innovation आती है जहां वह पूरी revamp होती है और पूरी revamp के अंदर उसकी headlight भी change होती है और उसकी backlight भी change होती है. So यह बहुत बड़ी बड़ी innovation से हम पिछले पंद्रह साल से मैं देखता आ रहा था. Right. So, as a layman, not as a consumer even I am talking about, I am talking about as a layman. मुझे हमेशा feel होता था कि it's high time, अब road के ऊपर कुछ different आना चाहिए. So that was my idea of bringing scooters to Pakistan. जब हम scooters को research कर रहे थे बहुत ज़्यादा तो फिर getting into that thing जो policy side भी थी because the government policy is very much focused towards electric, then green revolution, then China has their all advantage towards electric vehicles. That all added up of joining the electric and scooters part. But that was the real motto behind bringing this product to Pakistan.

Muzamil

Interesting. अगर मैं before I get into the whole दो हज़ार बाइस of getting that or getting into the scooter business and then 2025, उसका उसको breakdown भी हम कर लेंगे. But I want to understand as of today, we're in August 2025. What does the scale look like for you guys? Was this bet successful? Are you finally comfortable कि यार जो दो हज़ार सत्रह की journey थी वह finally कहीं ना कहीं culminate हो गई है और एक validation होती है ना जब इंसान अपना कुछ start करता है. That is the true test of your capability and so, you know, आपको जब तक आपका वह final एक एक continuous success नहीं मिलती तो एक chain नहीं आता. So, क्या आपको वह chain आ गया है? What does the scale look like?

Guest 2

You know, overall give me some numbers. So we have already delivered 25,000 units in the market. Interesting. Yeah. And what's the average yearly number looking like right now? The the my company number or the industrial? Your company number. So हमारा इस साल का target था of completing 25,000 units in this calendar year. Total number past 02/2005 is 25,000 vehicles on the road right now. अच्छा, interesting. So last year, first year we did 800, second year we did 8,000, this year we plan to do 25,000, we really hope we can exceed this inshallah.

Muzamil

Interesting. इसके अंदर मुझे बताएं कि what's changing, right? So let's plot this into a graph and so 800, 8,025 there's a clear growth वह there. What do you think is the biggest reason? क्या consumer, gen z consumer है जो कि ज़्यादा open है इस idea के ऊपर? क्या market के अंदर एक acceptance आना शुरू हो गई है या government policy intervention ऐसी है जिसमें आपको help किया है. What has been the biggest driver of या were you guys just marketing better? Like I am curious कि what's the core reason behind this growth? I would say all of these.

Guest 2

कोई एक आप identify नहीं कर सकते कि यह वाला एक या दो reasons हैं जिसकी वजह से market evolve कर रही है. I would say all of these. अगर मैं सबसे ज़्यादा prioritize करूंगा किसी चीज़, किसी एक reason को कि यह co reason है इस सबके growth का, for me that is consumer का एक मसला निहाल कर दिया. So, हमारा consumer कौन है? To be very, you bringing it into very easy words. So तमाम हो लोग जो एक दूसरी गाड़ी खरीद नहीं सकते and bike खरीदना नहीं चाहते for any reason. अब यह एक बहुत बड़ा portion है Pakistan के अंदर जो बीस at least पंद्रह बीस लाख से गाड़ी start होती है and bike पर जाकर आपको लगता है कि मेरा status quo hurt रहा है. तो अब या तो आप ridering app पर dependent हैं या आप friends family पर है या आप रिक्शा करा रहे हैं या आप Uber करा रहे हैं या आप buses पर जा रहे हैं सब किसी ना कोई, किसी ना किसी form पर dependency आपकी. अब जब अच्छा mostly जो ये वाले लोग हैं इनके 100 kilometer commute नहीं क्योंकि जिनका 100 kilometer daily का commute है उनके पास personal vehicles हैं, वो तो afford ही नहीं कर सकते. Personal vehicle के बगारे commute करना उनको तो bike रखनी रखनी है. ये सब वो लोग थे जिनका दो kilometer, पांच kilometer, दस, पंद्रह, बीस, 30 kilometer का सफर है. Shorter commuter है लेकिन वो किसी ना किसी dependency mode में चल रहे थे. अब जब उनको उनका एक personal vehicle मिल रहा है, you know, how life changes for them. So for me this has been the co reason why this industry is transforming so well because the consumer has accepted this product कि भाई इसने तो मेरी ज़िंदगी बदल दिया बाकी adding up to that all those reasons are the reasoning. So, जिस तरह मैंने आपको पहले कहा कि मेरा seventeenth number था of coming into the this business. आज की date में 74 licenses दिए जा चुके हैं. इसका मतलब है कि मैं अकेला market नहीं कर रहा, सत्तर पंजहत्तर लोग इसको market करें product को. बिकैर जिसका भी but as a industry market हो रही है यह. Secondly government, Punjab government, federal government, उनकी subsidy programs हैं, उनकी policy बहुत clear है that they have to boost this industry. That is also very main chunk out of it. So, I would say कि इन सब को amalgamate करके जब आप वह जो mixture बना देंगे तो वह यह reason है कि why this number is getting so better and, but for me again the core reason is that कि हमने अपने consumer को independence दी है जिसकी वजह से वह इस product को बहुत ज़्यादा open है अब लेने के लिए.

Muzamil

In terms of the monthly sales, are there any automotive sector क्या आती ना? गाड़ियों क्या आती है कि इस brand ने इतनी बेची है, यह number चल रहा है. Is there one for EV as well? Where would you rank yourself? आपने कहा seventeenth number था in terms of first and license. आज in terms of sales आप लोग कहां पर हैं?

Guest 2

अहमद अल्लाह जी, very very proudly and very very humbly we are leading the market, Alamdulillah. From past six to eight months we have holded the top position now. I think three or four months previous we also exceeded the total number out there. So as per today we talk, Alamdulillah, leading on the top number and also on the monthly number. But there are a lot of people over there who are working very well and I would say कि जितने भी EVM players हैं I don't call any of the company as a competitor because we are all working for the same industry growth. We are working right now कि हमारा pie increase होना चाहिए. So once the pie is increased all of us will get out of it. So

Muzamil

it's been a very good journey I would say. No makes sense. I think, मैं जो number देख रहा था, साल की कोई तकरीबन, fifteen-eighteen lakh bikes बिक रही हैं इस time के ऊपर, right? So, जो conventional bikes बिक रही हैं. And so, पच्चीस हज़ार is just, like, is a drop in the ocean in that context. I'm not sure क्या real actual number क्या है? आप you would be able to guide me better. But what's the total addressable market here? You said कि जी मैंने pie को increase करना है. आपने कोई analysis किया हुआ होगा कि चाहे existing जो consumer है जो जाकर bikes ख़रीद रहा है उसको हम convert करके लेकर आएं. And I'm trying to understand the entire market. So not just scooter segment but two wheeler segment या three wheeler segment.

Guest 2

Yeah, so आपका previous एक question भी sorry मैं skip कर गया regarding the total number data. So formally कोई ऐसा नहीं है कि जहां पर आपको two wheel का पूरा number show होगा. हम report करते है to engineering development board who keep this data as their property and they don't public it. So they have that data compiled किस किस company के क्या क्या production figures है but it is not available for public. So we usually prepare the data with our own research and the numbers what we get are merely ninety-ninety 5% accurate not 100% but according to our judgement we can say that this year in the calendar year 2025 the market of two wheels बेशक bikes हों या scooters हों, it will definitely go to 100,000 vehicles this year.

Muzamil

Electric

Guest 2

की बात हो रही है. Electric electric two wheel. Right. 100,000 का number इस साल बहुत आराम से आया था जो कि previous year it was around 25, 26,000. So the growth is 4x for this year. उससे previous दो हज़ार तेईस में चले जाए तो सात आठ हज़ार था. So the number has been growing pretty nicely and जो उसका वह growth का x factor है that is also increasing air on air. So the industry has been performing very well. So secondly you talked about the market size. So Pakistan में maximum जो bike sale हुई हैं वह दो हज़ार probably सत्रह अठारह बीस के era में अंदर हुई हैं. दो million का number achieve किया है इस industry ने. आज की date में number थोड़ा सा dropped है. I think इस साल का number, so fiscal year की बात करते हैं normally जिस इसमें. So इस साल के fiscal year के अंदर तकरीबन 1,400,000, 1,450,000 के करीब number expected, number achieve हुआ था. अगले साल भी number more or less 1.5, 1,600,000 ही रहेगा. Interestingly इसके अंदर यह total number is for the fuel bikes. इसके अंदर से जो दो हज़ार चौबीस पच्चीस का number था fiscal year का, well, merely पंद्रह लाख कर लें. पंद्रह लाख vehicles में से पच्चीस हज़ार या तीस हज़ार electric बनी होंगी. So the percentage is very small as per today. But the number is increasing air on air massively. Probably अगले साल fiscal year की भी मैं बात करूं तो number डेढ़ दो लाख पर जाना कोई बड़ी बात ही नहीं है. So numbers तो extensively increase हो रहे हैं. अच्छा यह numbers क्यों increase हो रहे हैं? I have again my personal logic attached to that. So, Pakistan के अंदर जैसे आपने बिल्कुल अपने intro में mention किया था कि total number of vehicles को पच्चीस million के करीब है जिसके अंदर से कोई इक्कीस बाइस million के करीब two wheels होंगे. So, mainly हम कहते दो करोड़ की market है Pakistan में motorcycles की. इन दो करोड़ vehicle road के ऊपर है. अब interestingly यह दो करोड़ vehicle सिर्फ और सिर्फ लड़के चलाते हैं. अच्छा, traditional market के अंदर सिर्फ लड़के चलाए करते थे खवातीन का ratio 0.1% भी नहीं था. मेरे portfolio के अंदर बीस percent खवातीन लेती हैं.

Muzamil

Interesting. So that's an entirely new demographic that you are unlocking altogether. Exactly. So अब सिर्फ लड़के नहीं चलाएंगे, लड़कियां भी चलाएंगी.

Guest 2

यानी मेरा market size mainly अगर double नहीं होता तो 1.5x तो बहुत आराम से होता है. अच्छा, फिर अब मैं बुजुर्गों को भी deal करता हूं because मेरे पास three wheel में product है. तो यह जो दो करोड़ का number है, यह इससे बहुत ज़्यादा जाम हो सकता है comparing the two wheel industry now.

Muzamil

So for me that is one of the biggest reason as well why the industry is performing so well. इससे मुझे यह बताएं कि historically you were doing very sort of B2B three wheel segment, rickshaws, four stroke, cargo. मुझे अभी last time पता लगा था कि Punjab का plan है कि वह रिक्शास को उन्होंने completely electric electrify करना है and they wanna sort of get rid of जहां तक के रिक्शास का तालो क्या वह noise और उसकी वजह से. And so that original DNA, do you think that's somewhere in there as well? या are you so so comfortable now in the consumer segment that you want to just sort of double down on this? Are there any alternative electric products for the sort of B2B, you know, retail market as well?

Guest 2

So पहले तो मैं three wheel की बात करता हूं. So जो manufacturing actual में लगाई थी that was for the three wheel. डेढ़ दो साल काम किया. उसके बाद काफी समझ आ गई कि three wheel दोबारा नहीं करने की चाहत नहीं रही. जो बहुत ज़्यादा एक determination से वह plant लगाया था. उसका result शायद कुछ इतना positive नहीं रहा कि उस segment से मैंने अपने आप को differ कर लिया हुआ है. Why? Not because कुछ सदमा है but because of the dynamics of that market. तो three wheel की market के अंदर एक बहुत बड़ा जो मेरे लिए challenge था वह यह था कि जो actual consumer है जिसने वह रिक्शा चलाना है उसके बाद पैसे नहीं है. So let's suppose एक normal रिक्शा की price, three wheel की price is 400,000 rupees, तो उसके जेब के अंदर बीस पच्चीस पचास हज़ार रुपए हैं, जो actual consumer है. So अब उसने उस रिक्शे को finance करवाना है from the dealer and that is how he'll pay him monthly from his income and something like that, so वह industry ऐसे चलती है. So it means कि उस industry में आप जितना भी अच्छा perform करें eventually आपकी dealer dependence रहेगी. So that is one thing I learned from that market कि this is not something I had been very comfortable depending on the middle person to get my sales. So, जब हम two wheel can segment में आ रहे थे in the EVs, so day one we were very clear कि we have to hit the consumer directly. We don't want to have an intermediary in the between. Yes, the dealers are very important for us too. We have all portfolio related dealers as well but at the same time we wanted to be direct to our consumer. So that was my reasoning कि two wheel segment में जाना है and इसमें अब रहना है. The Punjab government has been very very actively trying their best कि किसी तरीके से three wheels को, रिक्शा को electrify किया जाए.

Muzamil

I think that is a much bigger challenge as compared to two wheel because अभी तक मेरे लिए उसकी consumer के लिए business sense and all those numbers and the business model I think वह clarity नहीं some bigger player like वह सासगार है या वह जो truck वाले हैं तो अगर उस तरह कोई player आता है जिसके पास cash flow बहुत बड़ा available है और वह जाता और जाकर कहता है कि ठीक है I'll hammer the market and I'll go on credit I don't care. तो वह फिर market demand खुद से create कर सकता है but for a niche bootstrap player it might be a little difficult to actually get I would have been referred to that too by the way.

Guest 2

In my opinion even any businessman भले उनके पास जितना भी cash flow हो they will never burn their money. The only way electric रिक्शास चलने हैं Pakistan के अंदर सिर्फ for me. There is only one way out कि आज government कहती है कि हमें दस हज़ार बीस हज़ार रिक्शे चाहिए and शासगार या किसी भी companyयों कहते हैं कि ये आप पैसे पकड़ें and हमें आप रिक्शे दे दें. अब मैं जानूं और मेरा consumer जाना उनसे पैसे लेने हैं, नहीं लेने हैं, कब लेने हैं. That is the only way this can drive. Any private business, I don't think because they'll invest money because इसकी business viability अभी ठीक नहीं है. Makes

Muzamil

sense. Again, अगर वह government पैसा ना भी लगाए तो viability ठीक करनी है. वह tax लगाए उसके ऊपर, वह उसको you know electric को rebate करें. कुछ ना कुछ कर कराकर they have to sort of make that happen. मुझे यह बताएं कि you know you gave some numbers in terms of the total addressable market of let's say 15,000,000, 1,500,000 and current number at 100,000. So that means effectively we're at 8%, right? 30% ले जाने के लिए, 2,030 तक, that would be what, 450,000. अगर मैं आज दो हज़ार पच्चीस का number जो आप दे रहे उसको मंदिर नज़र रखूं तो मैं कहता यार it's not bad I mean you know that seems like right within reach और जो Punjab government का जो extended number है वह कहते कि जी हम by 204090% होगा और by twenty sixty completely And I think those are very conservative numbers like उन्होंने बड़ा अच्छे से numbers दिए हैं. कोई बहुत दिन उन्होंने कहा हवाई fire नहीं मारे कि you know हम दो साल में सब बदलते हैं. What is your opinion कि जो यह government का current plan है do you see that happening in terms of and I would love to add the context of the finance side of things, right? कि भाई बात तो बहुत अच्छी है but does क्योंकि मैं इसको जब इस problem को approach करूंगा तो मैं इस तरह से देखूंगा जो आपकी वाली बात कि भाई bike वाला जो है उसका let's say सौ kilometer का range है उसके comparable price point के ऊपर पचास kilometer या साठ kilometer मुझे range मिल रही है, कितनी strength मिल रही है. Do you genuinely see a 100% EV adoption in the grand scheme of things in the next? I mean, the number according to the government is what?

Guest 2

Thirty five years, which is a good timeline. So I'll I'll I'll answer it from both ends, from the government side as well as from the consumer side. Definitely right on track. मुझे तो लगता है कि यह जो पांच लाख का number है यह हम probably दो हज़ार अट्ठाईस तक ही probably achieve कर चुके होंगे जिस pace से हम जा रहे हैं. So government का number is very much fine and अच्छी बात यह है कि हम अपनी government को बहुत बातें करते हैं. मैं भी personally बहुत करता हूं but in my days two years of experience in electric vehicles I would say कि government cannot be more supportive into this industry. Challenges होंगे, teething issues हैं, रोज़ कुछ ना कुछ operational challenges होते हैं, they will remain there but talking about the policies, the policy is very clear what government wants to do. The subsidy is very clear which shows practical government support. यह नहीं कि हवाई fire मारे हैं कि जी आपको बस हम support कर रहे हैं, बातें नहीं हैं. हम पर GST 1% है. So fuel vehicle के ऊपर अठारह percent है. तो सत्रह percent तो हमने day one सस्ता कर दिया which is a huge thing. Custom duties हम पर नहीं है, बहुत कम है as compared to fuel vehicles. So government की सिर्फ intent नहीं है, सिर्फ वह वाला रूखा सूखा support नहीं है. So government की policy बहुत clear है and actual में supportive है जो कि electric vehicles को support करती है and अगर उन्होंने दो हज़ार तीस का जो target दिया वह उसको actual में ऐसे महसूस होता कि करना भी चाहते हैं and मुझे पूरी अमीर जाकर कर भी लेंगे. So the government side पर तो I don't have a lot of challenges I would say. Now coming to the consumer side कि अब government तो चाहती कि product आ जाए but consumer क्यों ले? Consumer को कोई बहुत अच्छा reason चाहिए. For me saving your fuel cost is not a good reason. मैं तो अपना scooter नहीं बेचना चाहता. बाकी 73 players जो हैं वह अपने bike के scooter से बेच सकते हैं. Change in your life from my side. I am not here for that. What I am here for is to bring independence in your life. अभी आप stuck हो, आपको तीन kilometer दूर आपका college है, आप लड़की हो, आप नहीं जा सकते. आप dependent हो कि अब मेरे अब्बा आऐंगे, वह दस minute हारे मैं wait करूंगी उनका, कोई बात नहीं. वह आ जाएं and मैं उनके साथ ही जाऊंगी. Like, that's how I function. अब मैं एक लड़का हूं, जो गाड़ियों की आजकल हालात है बाकी चीज़ें that is a different thing. So what I am bringing for you on the table is your independent ride. So now you don't have to be dependent on anyone कि, you know, मैंने किसी के साथ भी आना जाना है. जो इनकी pitch है इससे वह correlate beep कर रहे हैं. Consumer वाकई feel कर रहा है कि वाकई उनकी ज़िंदगी में addition आ गई है. उनकी independence जो पहले बहुत ज़्यादा compromise हो रही थी अब उनको बहुत ज़्यादा easiness हो गई है. So हमारे consumers, हमारे ambassadors वन रहे हैं and वह जाकर वह बच्चे बच्चियां जाकर, you know, अपने friends को लेकर देते कि यार मैंने ले लिया और मेरी ज़िंदगी में तो यह changing आ गई है. तो why not you also get one? So, that is what the consume it brings to the consumer.

Muzamil

मुझे यह बताएं कि इस वक्त, are you selling this exclusively in Punjab or लाहौर? या is it available nationwide anywhere?

Guest 2

Sir, अंदुल्ला we are selling in Pan Pan Pakistan and हमारी 100 से ज़्यादा dealerships इस time active है and मज़े की बात यह है कि हमें पहले लगता था कि यह KLI का product है, कराची, लाहौर, इस्लाम बाद में बनेगा. मैंने ऐसे ऐसे शहरों के नाम सुन लिया अपनी dealerships के through जो मुझे मालूम ही नहीं था कि यह Pakistan के शहर हैं. So, it's going massively massively well in the rurals, in the urban. कोई categorize नहीं कर सकते जो कि मैं खुद भी skeptical था बहुत अरसा पहले कि पता नहीं यह, you know, कितना कोई बड़ी market वन जाएगी. आज शायद मैं बहुत बहुत ज़्यादा confident हो चुका हूं कि यह probably वह एक फ़िक्र था कि हर घर की सवारी, now I don't believe in that. यह probably हर individual की सवारी है, not हर घर की सवारी. So यह एक घर के अंदर अगर तीन scooters ख़रे हैं आज से पांच साल बाद तो मेरा निखाल यह को बड़ी बात होएगी. And in terms of the

Muzamil

micro experience, right? So individual experience क्या क्या है? पहले तो मुझे यह बताएं I I I am seeing eight different versions that you've launched. My understanding is उसमें जो सबसे छोटे versions हैं they're more more teenage focused and simplified. यह जो teenage focused वाले इनके लिए registration की requirement होती है या they're plug and play? Just take them and Yeah, they're they're plug and play. Ok. जो बाकी आपके छह हैं, जिसमें there's a EV NASA से start होता है I think that's a female focused and then Gen z and then S one and so on. What's the different range जो कि in terms of speed as well as जो total range है जो यह marketed range है हमेशा यह होता है वह एक marketed range होती है but उसमें weight high कितना आप खुलकर चला रहे हैं, sports mode पर चला रहे हैं. Real world range कितनी है? Charging का क्या infrastructure होता है? किस तरह से charging होती है? कितना time लगाती है? Real world environment के अंदर जब यह use होता है तो how does that sort of work out for most people?

Guest 2

So मतलब हमारे पास आठ variants हैं. हमारे जितने भी variants हैं वह सब एक theme के साथ चलते हैं. For instance जितना छोटे variants हैं उनका नाम Flipper or Mito है. They are fun ride vehicles for teenagers. Just जिनकी bicycle से bus होगी वह छोटे scooters पर आ जाए. Then we have NISA. By the name you can figure it out. It's specially designed for females. So हमारे यहां females के लिए हमने NISA क्यों choose किया था? Because यह बहुत light weight product है. इसका sir 60 KG weight है. So चूंकि females in our country are coming to two wheel first time in their life as an experiencing a two wheel तो हम चाहते थे उनके लिए एक low speed vehicle हो in the start, light weight हो ताकि वह आराम से चलाएं. खुद आना खास्ता अगर किसी वजह से गिरते भी हैं तो speed कम हो vehicle की and उसका weight भी कम हो ताकि उनको चोट कम से कम लग सके because at the end of the day it's a two wheel. उस पर this Gen Z it is very much targeted towards the young guys and जो college, universities जा रहे हैं, it's marketed towards that segment. फिर जो S1 series है, we have S1, S1 Pro and S1 Air. It is a very practical series where we market it to the office going people. So, by this way we try to cover all segments. Then we have a three wheel product as well जो हम बुज़ुर्गों को and people with special abilities market करते हैं. अब coming to the point कि इनकी मिलेगें क्या हैं and कितना हम लोग सही बताते हैं तो on average you will get a mileage of like 70 to 90 kilometer from each of these scooters. जो बड़े वाले S1 Air हैं वह hundred, hundred and twenty दे देंगे. छोटे kids version वाले हैं वह forty, fifty kilometer दे देंगे. But on average you will get 70 to 90 from almost all scooters. जब हमने start किया था day one तब Chinese ने हमें कहा कि आपके product के अंदर इतनी lets suppose 70 kilometer चलेगा. हमने यहां पर almost उतना ही market कर दिया but बहुत सी चीज़ों को हमने account for नहीं किया था. For instance, road condition, temperature, weather. China में एक heavy weight आदमी साठ kilo का होता है. हमारे पास एक normal बंदा अस्सी किलो का है. Obviously with weight efficiency कम हो जाती है. China में दो लोग नहीं चलाते. हमारे यहां दो लोग चलाते हैं. So all these things are related to EV's efficiency. Right. अब जाकर हमें ढाई साल हो चुके हैं. हमारे पच्चीस हज़ार vehicles road के ऊपर हैं. हमें इतना कुछ experience मिल चुका हुआ है कि हमारे products ने actual में कितनी mileage देनी है. So अब जो हम market करते हैं, जो हमारी mileage हैं they are very fair I would say. मतलब ऐसे नहीं है कि अगर मैंने 80 लिखा हुआ है तो वह 50 चल रही है. अगर 80 है तो हो सकता है वह 90 भी चले on a very comfortable scenario. हो सकता है वह 70 भी चले if the scenario is not very good. So

Muzamil

now I would say कि what we market is very very fair now. Makes sense. Again, इसी का मैंने आपसे दूसरा सवाल किया था कि seventy-eighty I think is fine. Most people even वह suburbs में भी रह रहे हैं, वह main city में जा रहे हैं. मैं अगर इलाहाबाद के हिसाब से देखूं तो आप barrier town रह लेंगे, आप यह चेहरे लेंगे, आप Brewery आऐंगे. It's like a twenty, twenty five kilometer each way. Right? So आप office जाएंगे. आप पच्चीस kilometer आपने travel किया. आप office पहुंचे, office से आपने काम किया, वापस आए आपने पच्चीस kilometer travel किया. अब वह battery जो है वह 20% पर आ गई है. आपने उसको plug करना है. Much time does it take? Let's assume मैं मैंने जो bike ली है वह आपकी, Gen Z वाली bike है. तो मैं university के लिए जाता हूं बीस kilometer या मैं office के लिए जाता पहली job मेरी लगी है और मैं उसके ऊपर जा रहा हूं. How much time would it take? और यह regular क्या plug में लगेगा? इसके लिए कोई specific plug लगाना पड़ेगा? How does that work? So इसकी charging भी बहुत simple है, it's not like a car charger, it's like a mobile charger.

Guest 2

आपने घर में simple जिस तरह mobile के लिए का आपको socket चाहिए, उसी तरह से आपने एक socket में इसको plug in करना है, दूसरी तरफ से आपने cable जो है वह scooter को लगा देनी है, the charging will start. So that's how the simple charging is. Charger हम आपको as a part of scooter देते हैं. It takes around eight hours for the scooter to get charged completely. We usually call it overnight charging. So, अब आपने अगर एक Gen Z scooter लिया हुआ है जिसका हम market कर रहे हैं 80 kilometers चलेगा. For instance, आपको महसूस होता है, आपका experience के मुताबिक sixty five seventy kilometers चल रहा है. Just saying. So, आपके दिन का commute 25 kilometer है. So with जो हमसे non scooters लेकर जाते हैं with one in a week's time they become that experience कि उनको पता होता है कि भाई इसको हमने charging कैसे करनी है because उसको display में भी आ रहा होता है कि how much charging is left and everything. So they know कि अब हमने इसको every alternative day charge करना है ताकि मेरा 25 kilometer किसी भी दिन hurt ना हो. So normally let's suppose रात को नौ दस बजे वह कर charging पर लगा देंगे. अब जब वह सुबह उठेंगे उसको plug out करेंगे तो charged होगा. जब वह charge complete हो जाएगा हो सकता सुबह चार बजे charging complete हो जाए तो वह auto trip हो जाएगा charger ताकि वह battery को overcharge भी नहीं करेगा. So this process is very very simple. We just charge it overnight hours से. Makes sense. कितने units लेते हैं? मतलब costing इसकी आपने key भी होगी?

Muzamil

BYD वाले कहते हैं कि जो उनकी गाड़ी है. उनकी गाड़ी जो है वह कहते हैं कि जी हमारी almost one third cost आ जाती है and maintenance कम होती है. तो I'm curious कि इसके अंदर I'm obviously there's no oil change happening, right? क्या maintenance पर भी are people saving up on that? And जो running है उसके ऊपर what's, is it the same as petrol? Is it different?

Guest 2

So, इसके अंदर सबसे पहले तो two units on average charge consume होते हैं electricity के. Again, छोटे variants हैं उसमें डेढ़ unit हो जाएगा, जो बड़े वाले variants हैं उसमें ढाई तीन unit हो जाएगा. On average दो सवा दो unit use होते हैं. That's electrical consumption out of it. Full charge करिए. Maintenance के लिए, so we serve after sale warranty of twenty months. Okay. अब आप Pakistan के किसी भी हिस्से में, किसी भी शहर में है या किसी भी गांव में है So all you have to do कि warranty card पे हमारा after sales का contact number है. आप उसपे call करें या WhatsApp message drop कर दें कि मेरा ये scooter है and इसमें ये ही मेरे missile है. So our team will approach you within twenty four hours, will go to your home, we won't charge you any money and अब उसमें जो repair maintenance होने वाली है that is what we will be doing. So this service is valid for twenty months for your product and it's valid for pan Pakistan. Other than that अब मैं बात करता हूं कि मैंने ढाई साल पुराने जो scooters बेचे थे जो out of warranty हो चुके हैं आज. अब उनको तो free service नहीं है. So आज की date में उसको maintenance की ज़रूरत नहीं है as such because इसके अंदर कोई engine नहीं है, कोई तरह की चीज़ें नहीं है. So उस फ़िक्र से तो वह आज़ाद है कि उनको कोई monthly check up करना है. जो mainly इसमें चीज़ होती है for example brakes का कोई tightening loosing हो जाएगी, कहीं पर कोई cables की tightening fit नहीं हो जाएगी, वो अब आज जब हम दो हज़ार पच्चीस August में है तो अब लोग at least इतना कोई experience हो चुके हुए हैं कि हर शहर में कोई ना कोई ऐसा आ चुका हुआ है जो थोड़ी बहुत repair maintenance करते हैं. तो एक तो वहां से कर सकते हैं. Secondly, हमारी जो free service है at your doorstep, वह आज भी free है for our consumers. Although we are not bound to serve them as per today, but we have kept it free of charge at least for the by the end of this year. Just to show a gesture because they were the real people because of which, because of who we, why we are here. So that's how the after sales network work around it.

Muzamil

Makes sense. At this point in time जो काफी दफा जब start में बात हुई ना EV की तो काफी सारे लोगों ने उस time के Makes a lot of sense. There is a direct economic foundation to it. उन्होंने इतना ज़्यादा इस्तेमाल करना है कि average consumer जहां पर अगर मैं apples to oranges से comparison करूं तो अगर मेरी cost half भी हो रही है ना in terms of the fuel is a major cost of, you know, ride hailing and delivery and all of that. So अगर मैं उसको कम कर दूं तो जहां पर उस बंदे commercial वाले बंदे का let's say डेढ़ हज़ार डेढ़ हज़ार रुपए का दिन का fuel लग रहा है, उसका पांच सौ लग जाएगा, उसका हज़ार रुपए extra जेब में जा रहा है. अब मसला उसमें यही आ रहा था कि जैसे ही लोग, दिमाग़ में यह आ रहा है कि यार critical mass के लिए consumer के बजाय business के पास जाएं. Business के पास जाएं तो उसकी जो सबसे बड़ी problem आ जाती है वही आ जाती है कि जी fast charging is not fast enough and alternatively until and unless there is some sort of a battery swapping system you can't really वह वह यही है ना कि वह फिर क्या होगा? वह जाएगा वह जाकर क्योंकि उसके even though fuel consumption से ज़्यादा है but उसे kilometers भी ज़्यादा है. क्योंकि type OEM devices बनी हैं या scooters बने हैं जो कि इस particular use case को solve करते हैं? So,

Guest 2

जब again यह market enter कर रहे थे two wheel electric vehicles या हम simple two wheel की बात कर लेते हैं. जब मैं market enter करा था तो उस time पर number check किया था कि road के ऊपर bikes हैं कितनी? वही दो crowd, सभा दो crowd bikes available हैं. फिर check किया कि इसमें से B2B में involve हैं कितनी? जो कि road पर नज़र तो हमें दिन में दस दफ आती हैं शायद. But उसका total number कितना है? उसका total number interestingly दो million भी नहीं था. Although वह नज़र ज़्यादा इसलिए आती है क्योंकि वह एक rider दिन में शायद दो सौ kilometer या डेढ़ सौ kilometer चलाता है. On the other hand, एक normal consumer शायद दस kilometer चला रहा होएगा. So इसलिए वह नज़र ज़्यादा आ रही है. But उसका total number is not more than 2,000,000. 2,000,000 मैंने बहुत ही you know, exaggerate number दे दिया but let's take it that way. So, for me it was a very very easy decision कि मैं tap करना चाह रहा था उस market को जो कि at least मेरे लिए tab बड़ा आएगा. So, that is one part why we went to the consumer market and not to the B2B segment. Secondly, talking about the product. मेरा जो आज का product है, जो मेरे ये आठ variants हैं, मैं समझता हूं इसमें ये वाले products are not very very fitted towards the B2B segment. अगर मैं bike किया करता हूं, food पांडा करता हूं जिसमें मुझे पता है कि उन्होंने दूसरा बंदा बिठाना ही है पीछे all day. Hundred hundred and fifty kilometer तो उनको चाहिए चाहिए. So probably these products are not designed in such a way. मेरा product design हुआ हुआ है as fulfilling the need of the consumer, not today fulfilling need of the B2B segment. Now coming to that model जहां पर हम कहते हैं कि अगर इनको हमने electrify करना ही है तो आप options क्या हैं? So एक option वह आती है कि हम swappable batteries में चले जाएं. अब swappable batteries में personally I am not a very very firm believer कि वह as a business model can work out in the long term for a lot of reasons. सबसे पहला reason यह है कि उसका CapEx बहुत high है. मैं अगर एक OEM हूं और मैंने एक start करना है, build करना है, swappable battery business तो मेरे पास या तो ठीक ठाक किस्म की funding हो जाए किसी VC के through जो कि सिर्फ swapple batteries को ही fund करते हैं because they feel कि वह business more ज़्यादा अच्छा है. So उनकी sense कुछ तरह से होती है कि जिसका consumer market है मैं अगर एक दिन 100 units बेच रहा हूं highly likely मैं अगले महीने two x three x की growth ले लूंगा. शायद that is the maximum number I can achieve. But what how they see is that अगर मैंने swappable को crack कर लिया इसका मतलब है कि मैं अगर मैंने properly एक business model दे दिया and मैंने bikeयां वगैरह किसी को pitch कर दिया, तो अगर किसी की तीस हज़ार bike की fleet है, it can come to me in one day and, you know, the company can be valued spontaneously very high. That's how they think about this model. But for me, especially for Pakistan, I don't believe that will be a very very workingly well model. Why? Let's suppose मैं कहता हूं मैंने सिर्फ लाहौर के DHA को swappable battery के लिए functional functional करना है as an OEM. अब सिर्फ़ उसको करने के लिए मुझे सिर्फ़ DHA लाहौर जहां phase one से लेकर eight तक इस time active है, मुझे at least at least आठ से दस जगह पर charging stations देने पड़ेंगे. ठीक है? एक charging station की मेरी minimum minimum capex cost एक million rupees है, 1,000,000. क्यों? उसके अंदर let's suppose मैंने minimum छह batteries रख दी हैं. एक bike के अंदर normally दो batteries आती हैं तो at least छह तो रखूंगा उसका कोई electrical का काम है, उसकी charging का infrastructure है. सब million डेढ़ million तो मेरा एक के लिए कहीं नहीं गया. साथ है सिर्फ़ लाहौर के DHA को cover करने के लिए सिर्फ़ मुझे swipe up stations लगाने के लिए मेरा बीस पच्चीस million तो बड़े आराम से यहीं चला जाएगा. अब उसकी maintenance cost, उसके rentals, उसके they are all अलग अलग expensive. अच्छा, अब इस सबके लिए मुझे कितनी bikes road पर चाहिए पहले? अच्छा, वह bikes अब charging के पैसे जब मैं कहता हूं जी मेरे दो unit लगेंगे, इसका मतलब है customer से मैं per battery सौ रुपए ज़्यादा तो वैसे ही ले सकता. तभी मेरा formula viable होगा उस consumer के लिए. तो वह जो सौ रुपए का turnover है मेरा और उसके लिए कितनी bikes road पर डलेंगी. So वह जो business dynamics, the business model है ना that doesn't make sense. The only thing which makes sense in a swapple battery is that मैंने आज आपसे दो million dollar की funding ले लिया. Let's suppose मेरा cap $10,000,000 का, मैंने एकदम से food पाना का order ले लिया बीस हज़ार units का. अब मेरा cap चला गया है पंद्रह million dollar, बीस million dollar पर. मैंने उसमें अपनी exit ले लिया है. That's all what's gonna happen in this Apple model. This is again my personal analysis. इसमें हमें यह भी नहीं पता ना कि the future अभी यह यह उस तरह है वह blue ray versus HD DVD type के यार हमें पता नहीं है standard क्या set होगा? मतलब वह hydrogen fuel चलेगा या

Muzamil

EV चलेगा या क्या चलेगा? तो it it is a gamble. We don't know कोई standards उस तरह से नहीं है batteries के, systems क्या लग रहे हैं, अभी वह protocols ऐसे ऐसे develop हो रहे हैं but swappable is still a a big question mark. Yes, exactly. You mentioned that. Exactly. As per today I would say कि we

Guest 2

at least me, I want to go gradual on this thing कि अभी हमें at least चार पांच साल experience लेना चाहिए. Me as an OEM, मेरे जब तक road के ऊपर कोई चार पांच लाख scooters road पर नहीं होते, तब तक मैं किसी नए product पर से या नई technology पर काम नहीं कर सकता. I think we should take it gradually. Once we are that confident, फिर B2B segment is there. We are going to come to there. It's not that we are not going there. We have to be there as well. Make sense. मुझे यह बताएं कि आपकी जो battery है उसकी life क्या है? जो average scooters में डाली है. So again we give a warranty of twenty months. We are using Graphene batteries from a very very renowned company in China and twenty months की warranty serve करते हैं. Now it depends how you use the scooter. So अब scooter के जो charging cycles होते हैं, they are around हमारी batteries के अंदर कोई छह सात सौ charging cycles होते हैं. So अब charging cycle होता है कि आप इतनी दफा इसको charge कर सकते हैं. अब let's suppose आपका scooter seventy eighty kilometer दे रहा है for instance और आप कहते हैं यार मैं तो रोज़ ही charge करता हूं, मैं तो रोज़ ही consume कर लेता हूं. आप हफ़्ते में दो दिन करते हैं हो सकता है चार साल भी चल जाए. But this is how it it processes. और जो आपकी batteries battery replacement है क्योंकि यह वाली batteries यह

Muzamil

specific batteries आ रही हैं यह आपकी वह वाली नहीं है गया यार वह मैं गया volta की battery उठाई और उठाकर के लगा दी. ये specific आ रही हैं so I am assuming कि you have the network to actually replace those batteries as well? Yeah yeah yeah yeah we have again that network is also pan Pakistan. Have you done some accounting? कि अब यहां पर ना this is a potential problem right? अगर मैं accounting के ऊपर purely आऊं because whatever I save on fuel वह कहीं ना कहीं दो साल बाद जाकर क्योंकि मैं use कर रहा हूं aggressively तो मैं fuel पर save कर रहा हूं लेकिन जब जहां पर मैं aggressively use कर रहा हूं cycle मेरे पूरे हो रहे हैं. तो जो दो साल बाद मेरी cost of battery replacement है is that equating to whatever I save? Is that higher? Is that lower? What does that number look like?

Guest 2

अच्छा इसके अंदर मेरी pitch थोड़ी सी different है. I don't look into this like that. It's for me, it's like you buy your phone. अब आप जब phone खरीदते हो तो you don't think कि मैं दो साल बाद कितने का बेचूंगा. आप यह सोचते हो कि यह मेरी ज़िंदगी में value क्या add कर रहा है? मेरा camera कितना fit हो जाएगा? मेरे इसके अंदर apps कौन कौन सी आ जाएंगे? इसका processor कितना तेज है? कितने जल्दी click के ऊपर मेरा काम हो जाएगा? And how my life can be uprooted because of this product? So that is very similar to Scooten app. So जब कोई भी consumer मेरा अब मैं किसी bike वाले को तो कह ही नहीं रहा कि भाई तुम अपनी bike बेचो और मेरा scooter ले लो. So मेरी तो pitch यही है कि किसी के पास कुछ भी नहीं है. वह बिल्कुल ही dependent बैठा हुआ है. तो मैं तो उसको कह रहा हूं कि अब आप यह product ले लो. No, I understand that. So, the reason why That is one part. Reason why I ask this is because critical mass अगर आपने hit करना है ना तो वहां पर कहीं ना कहीं economic viability आएगी. I understand कि शायद वह आज नहीं आ रही हो, right? What I'll probably do is कि मैं जाऊंगा, मैं जाकर

Muzamil

what's the innovation happening in the batteries? What's the innovation happening in other parts? And that will help me really sort of identify कि यार एक point तक मुझे novelty बेचनी है but एक certain point के बाद जाकर के वह novelty के अंदर जो है ना ख़ास करके दो हज़ार अठारह से जो बाइस तेईस तक का जो time था ना उस time के ऊपर solar boomed like anything, right? And why? Because there was a very very clear economic viability and as soon as that hit, अच्छा पहले क्या होता था हम जब market में जाकर देख रहे थे और हम लोगों से सिर्फ़ analysis कर रहे थे तो हमें convince करना पड़ता था and it seemed like this novelty जो Tesla की वह solar city करती है और यह करती और तुम गोरे के शश्के हैं और तुम लोग क्या बातें कर रहे हो? तो उस psychology को मद्देनाज़र रखते हुए I'm curious कि what does the accounting look like today? And do you see, have you done this research in China in terms of, you know, phones भी है तो उसमें phones के ऊपर भी एक upgradation का cycle है. China का OEM phone क्या कर रहा है और iPhone क्या कर रहा है और आज से पांच साल बाद वह OEM भी iPhone वाली सारी चीज़ें दे रहा होगा. So what does that look like for you guys?

Guest 2

So, Pakistan के अंदर, as per now अगर हम बात करें about the unit economics, so हमारा scooter for instance अगर एक दो unit में आपने full charge कर लिया, मेरे लोग सी cost कोई $120,150 कर लें. डेढ़ सौ रुपए में आपका full charge हो गया. On average आपको उसके ऊपर साठ सत्तर kilometer मिल जाएंगे. ठीक है? So that, so your cost per kilometer becomes 2 rupees. अब इसको मैं अगर किसी भी vehicle से compare करूंगा, चाहे मैं fuel bike से करूंगा, चाहे मैं ride hailing app से करूंगा, चाहे किसी से भी करूंगा तो आठ दस रुपए तो वह एक डेढ़ रुपए add up कर जाएगा दो रुपए के अंदर. Let's suppose चार रुपए हो जाएगी आपकी cost total. So now that is your cost. Right. अब talking about the depreciation, the depreciation of the product is there. अब let's suppose अगर मैंने कोई normal bike ख़रीदी है, उसके ऊपर let's suppose मैंने दो साल चला लिया and उसके ऊपर depreciation मेरी पंद्रह बीस बीस percent हो गई है. Although वह एक अलग अलग मसला है कि हमारे यहां गाड़ियों या bike की prices बढ़ जाती हैं that is because of devaluation. अगर devaluation होगी तो obviously मेरा दो लाख का scooter तो अगर bike की बात करता हूं बीस percent depreciation है. हमारे scooter की बात करेंगे शायद दो साल बाद चालीस percent होएगी depreciation. So that but even putting

Muzamil

that factor in जो cost viability है that will even be becoming better as compared to a bike और ride hailing apps और cars तो obviously it's much better product. What's the upgrade cycle for the products in terms of technology नई आ रही है, उसमें नए मतलब जाहिर है कि आपके पीछे से you have OEM partners that are bringing a lot of these products out, right? So how rapidly do they upgrade? Generations होती थी ना? साल गाड़ियों की पांच साल होती थी, bikes का not sure कैसे होती है? इसमें किस तरह से upgradation आ रही होती है?

Guest 2

So China में तो यह upgradation है EVs is really very fast. Like really very fast. मैं यह खाल में अगर हम हर साल में अपने दो दो models अगर upgrade करें तो यह कोई शायद मैं गलत नहीं कहूंगा. हमें ढाई साल हुए start करते हुए. हमारी initially series जो आई थी वह C1 की थी. C1, C1 Pro and C1 Air था. वह last year replace हो चुकी हुई है with S1 series. So यानी हमने अपना business ढाई साल पहले शुरू की और हमारी एक product range replace होकर नए product से आ भी चुकी है. So EVs तो बहुत fastly काम करते हैं and China के अंदर different technologies के ऊपर बहुत काम हो रहा है. यह जो अभी हम product लेकर आ रहे हैं which is the EV two wheel with the graphene battery, यह समझे वहां का fully tried and tested product है पिछले दस साल का. तो एक वह patented है कि हां यह product तो बिल्कुल ठीक है जबकि वहां पर इसके अलावा मज़ीर products आ चुके हुए हैं तो it's, it's a big difference in तो our regarding the models upgradation and everything, I think it will be happening much much much you know on a master faster pace as compared to traditional bikes. और Makes मतलब bike में तो ख़ैर होती नहीं थी compared to traditional cars as well. Makes sense. In terms of the technology,

Muzamil

right? So is it right now is it just batteries, motors and a display unit. Yeah, because electronics है ना. तो जब हमने देखा कि electronics China is is is a champion of electronics. They mechanics के ऊपर वह तो नहीं कर पाए. But जब electronics आएंगी हैं तो they just went nuts. Right? वह BMW और Audi वाली features दे रहे होते हैं at tenth of the cost. And so I'm curious कि यह are these bikes or at least the future models that you've experienced in China, are they tech heavy? And what I'm thinking is कि actually this connects with another question कि one thing I'm noticing across the world is कि because of the fact कि अब वह यह mobile phones की तरह ना OEM वाला business होना शुरू हो गया in a lot of ways, right? Because पहले गाड़ियां बड़े थोड़े से brands होते थे, वह बनाते थे. अब वह scale पर जा रही हैं और वह आप यह उठाओ. China आप जाते हैं तो वह इस factory में यह वन रहा है. इधर यह बना हुआ और आप दो हफ़्ते में एक चीज़ बना लेते नहीं, right? And so जो brand का meaning है वह काफ़ी ज़्यादा change हो गया है. पहले auto mobile was all about कि जी हमारी engineered product and इतने अरसे की legacy. Now it's all about it's about a lot of different things. And so we're beginning to see कि इस brand के अंदर एक community का aspect है. Tesla's champion that. वह यह नहीं कर रहा कि यार यह item है ख़रीदो और निकल जाओ. वह कह रहा ना जी, you're part of something bigger and, know, you you connect with each other and वह सारा का सारा. And call it marketing, call it whatever. But I'm curious कि अब आपने पच्चीस हज़ार लोगों को यह पच्चीस हज़ार bikes on the road हैं. Are they people until and unless वह call लगाकर के आपको call नहीं करते, is there a way that you've been able to connect with them, get their feedback, get gather that data of what's happening? Because it's it's electronic, there is potentially a lot of data. And so, इससे मेरे दिमाग़ में आया कि अच्छा electronic है तो is there a way कि मैं उसको वह बंदा जो है ना वह जाकर के उस map कर सकता तीसरा, it begins to really give you a lot of data points that helps you create the right product for your customer. क्या यार अच्छा हमारा मेरा customer तो इसको ऐसे ऐसे use कर रहा है because यह aggregate map data आपके पास आ रहा है और आपको वह आ करके बता रहा है जो कि आप उसमें उसको भी offer कर सकते हैं बेहतर products and बेहतर service. Are any of the current bikes doing that? Is that something that you're going to look at in the future? Are you building a community? How are you getting the feedback? It's a lot of brain dump, but what are your thoughts on all of this?

Guest 2

So I think all of you what you have said यह सब चीज़ों पर काम हो रहा है. Right. यह सब वह चीज़ें हैं जो pipeline में है because initially when we started so we bought the scooters from China. हम उनकी technology को यहां replicate किया, scooters को start किया, market identify की. So start तो हमारा as a product हुआ हुआ है. But obviously this as an industry has to become a tech industry eventually जहां पर हमारे पास यह data and यह सारी जो जो आपने चीज़ें बोली हैं यह तमाम चीज़ें एक app के through connect हो जाएंगी बाकी chases होती है, plastic parts होते हैं. Chases तो खैर हम locally develop कर चुके हैं but plastic parts हैं. So यह इसके major major hard core components हैं hardware के अंदर. Software के अंदर अभी as per today हमारे product के अंदर उस तरह से software built in नहीं है but that is what we are working on right now very actively कि हमारे कोई भी हर scooter के साथ कोई ना कोई app integrate होनी चाहिए जहां पर एक profile वन जाए consumer की वह अपनी even उन्होंने warranty claim करनी है तो warranty claim करने के लिए अब वह मुझे phone ना करें, WhatsApp ना करें, वह सीधा अपनी app खोले वहीं पर जाकर उसकी picture खींचेगी मुझे यह let's suppose जी मेरा जी scooter के लिए जी यह problem आ रहा है, brakes ही नहीं चल रही let's suppose. तो मतलब वहीं पर register कर दें and हमारी team जाकर उसको rectify कर लें. तो I think this app thing and tech thing can bring a lot of wonders for me as a business and for the consumer as well. तो दोनों ends पर the work is being done and I am very hopeful that very soon we will come up with such a product as well for the consumer. You mentioned कि अभी आपकी प्रज्ञाज जैसी वगैरह वह Pakistan में वन रही है and I am curious कि इसमें how much of this product is being localized now at this point in time and how much of this can be localized in the let's say near term three to five years? देखिए can be तो that's a very very open question I would say because अगर मैं traditional two wheel bike की बात करता हूं fuel bike की तो उसका जो localization का number है कोई 95% if I am not wrong achieve हो चुका हुआ है यानी उसके 95% parts locally Pakistan में बनते हैं. Engineering point of view से vendor industry Pakistan की specifically for two wheel is very strong. मुझे उसके ऊपर कोई doubt नहीं है. हां, थोड़ा सा question अभी क्या है कि mask कितना है, production figures कितने हैं, जिसके ऊपर वह skeptical होते हैं कि क्योंकि किसी एक part को अगर आपने develop करना है तो there is a huge cost attached to it जो कि उसकी एक fixed cost आ जाएगी and then there is a running cost of the product. So हमारे जो scooters हैं हमारे पास आठ models हैं. हम इनमें से तकरीबन चार models के जो frames हैं उनको localize already कर चुके हुए हैं. अगर हम frame उसके साथ कुछ attach parts होते हैं metal के चार पांच parts वन जाते हैं that brings up to the value terms के अंदर तकरीबन कोई आठ दस percent की वह localization aspect ले आता है. इसके tyres हैं वह हमने probably from the second third month ही हमने localize कर दिए थे because they were available in Pakistan और that brings up to around two two and a half percent of the value of the product. So totally अगर हम कहे कि हमारे कुछ models है शायद बारह चौदह percent achieve कर चुके हैं localization, कुछ product आठ percent पर खड़े हैं, कुछ अभी बिल्कुल भी नहीं हुए हैं. By the end of this year हमारा company का target है although we are not too much regulated on this as per now because the government wants EVs to come, not regulators right now. But as a company we do feel कि हमें कुछ ना कुछ local touch लेकर आना है because our vendor industry is very strong. So by the end of this year we expect कि हमारे जो main earning models हैं उनको तकरीबन कुछ सत्रह अठारह percent की localization पर लेकर जा चुके हो. So we are working on that. We have a whole team in our company now who is specifically their work is to localize the product and they are working very well on that as well. So I am hoping InshaAllah that in coming years we will localize it as much as we can. And in terms of the design localization, what I mean by that is कि यार एक है कि यार let's go to China, let's see what they have and let's,

Muzamil

you know, जुम्हा बाज़ार of bikes by a bunch of people. I like this one. It has good reviews. Let put put put our brand and assemble this in in Pakistan. एक दूसरा यह है कि यार अच्छा चलो ठीक है, यह bikes आ गई हैं, data आ गया है, पता लग रहा है यार इस bike में यह मसला बार बार आ रहा है. तो इसके tyre थोड़े से बड़े कर देते हैं, इसका थोड़ा सा design redesign कर देते हैं. And so even if you don't bring it all a bit to Pakistan, at least you can begin to provide those specifications and create that design, right? Do you guys have a design team? And I was speaking to, for example, Ronin. Ronin जो audio का parts बनाते हैं. They've actually set up a team in Pakistan जो कि क्योंकि उनकी वह assembly factory Pakistan में आ गई है. तो they've actually set up a team and they're beginning to design their own their own products. और उसके लिए उन्होंने जो आपके वह design engineers होते हैं और वह सारे के सारे उन्होंने वहां से उठाना शुरू कर दिया. And so now that Pakistan में वह industry आ रही है, lot of these graduates are beginning to find opportunities to work in as well. I'm curious कि are you doing any sort of design in house? Are you hoping to go towards that route? And what's the overall headcount? And what are those different sorts of people that are currently working in your company?

Guest 2

So right now, in Pakistan, there are two set of business models in terms of EV-two wheels. एक है जो यहां पर locally बनाकर उसको market करें, एक है जो हमें follow करके scooters मंगवाकर यहां पर sale करें. So बहुत अच्छा लगता है कि हम पाकिस्ताने product design करें, बनाएं and यहीं पर उसको market करें but we need to have scale for that. The engineering is there, the vendors are there but उसके लिए scale चाहिए ताकि हम product को पूरा revamp कर सकें, सिरे से उसको design करें. चूंकि वह volume अभी है नहीं as per today तो हम क्या करते हैं कि जो existing bike है हम उसमें कोई ना कोई changing कर देते कि चलो उसको right कर दो, left कर लो, बड़ा कर लो, छोटा कर लो ताकि ठीक हो जाए. But that's how, not how a product designed. Right. A product designed from the core like start से शुरू होएगा design उसका. जब beach में जाकर उसमें alter वह alterations हैं, वह design नहीं है. तो I firmly believe कि जब आप alterations करते हैं तो उसका output फिर वह नहीं आता जो आना चाहिए. So we have taken this path जहां पर हम लोग scooters China China एक ऐसी technology है इन scooters की जो पिछले बीस साल पहले start हुआ. बीस साल से वह इस product पर काम कर रहे हैं. आज जो उनकी बीस साल की reset जहां पहुंच चुकी है हम वह product लेकर आए हैं यानी technically हमारा product एक market fit product कह सकते हैं. But now coming to that like हम क्या करेंगे? हम अगले दस साल यही करते रहेंगे? No, that's not what we are going to do. We have to design a product over here and जब हमने company start की थी तो मेरी personally बहुत ख्वाहिश भी है and day one से है कि कोई ऐसा वक्त है जहां पर हम एक product को completely सिरे से design यहां पर करें, उसकी drawings बनें, उसको हम properly एक शक्ल दें, फिर उसकी molds बनें, उसको manufacturing को लेकर आएं, proper एक उसका जो system है उस पर करें. But obviously for that you need two things. One is the volume. हमारा number क्या target करने का? शायद जब तक मेरा साल का ढाई तीन लाख का number नहीं है या दो लाख का number नहीं है मेरे लिए toughest को achieve करना. Secondly obviously we need a lot of cash flow for that. अगर मुझे एक product को properly design करना है तो मुझे at least at least तीन चार लाख dollar spend करने उसके ऊपर. At least तब जाकर मेरा एक product properly design होएगा. So यह दोनों चीज़ें side by side होनी है. Makes sense. Having said that what what path we have opted as per today? But जो हमारी team इस काम के लिए, इस time काम कर रही है, they are all engineers. I think they are seven or eight people who are working in this department जो इसकी localization पर काम करते हैं. This is our in house team then they because we don't manufacture anything ourselves. We don't even want to manufacture anything by ourselves. We want to rely on vendors. So इसलिए our team is only working to ensure the quality standards. That's what our team does. So probably आज से दो साल बाद जब यह team बड़ी हो चुकी होगी, experience हो चुकी होगी, इस product को localize कर चुकी होगी, थोड़े variants about का पता चल चुका होएगा, vendors को explore कर चुकी होगी, तब जाकर हम बहुत capable होंगे कि हमको product properly Pakistan में design करें as a whole and उसको फिर हम manufacture करें and then market करें. Just to confirm, assemble तो अभी भी यहीं पर हो रही है, right? वह parts में आ रही और assemble. Yeah yeah, yeah

Muzamil

ठीक है. आपने financing Assemble तुमार units यहां होता है. आपने कहा कि तीन चार लाख dollars आइए and that's understandable. Multiple times obviously infrastructure जिसमें investment is going to be a big part of it. It's a new industry and as you scale obviously वह चीज़ आएगी. आप लोगों की अभी तक I mean did you bootstrap this from the very start? आपने कहा कि एक time के ऊपर cash flow negative था. अब इस क्या सूरतेहाल है? Are you positive? What do the revenues look like in terms of the overall annual? किस level के ऊपर आप चल रहे हैं? Do you think कि आप at some point PCs के पास जाएंगे या private equity के पास जाएंगे कि यार मैंने grow करना है? Cash infusion कब कब हुई है? कैसी हुई है? क्या आप IPO करेंगे at some point? What does that plan look like financially?

Guest 2

I'll be a bit I'll take the chance to be more blunt on this. जब हमने cargo loaders को end up कर रहे थे we were cash flow negative at that time but अच्छा part यह था कि factory थी मेरे पास. वह सारा आपने पैसों से आपने किया हुआ था? Yeah, वह सब बाद ने पैसों से किया था. So factory मेरे पास थी तो मुझे at least आपको name and infection site नहीं चाहिए थी. मैं उसी में थोड़ी सी alterations करके उसको two wheel का एक plant बना सकता था. तो वह मेरे लिए एक आसान हो गया. जो मेरे पास पैसे थोड़े से बचे हुए थे अपने पुराने business में से although that was a cash flow negative business taking that chance at that time कि मैं अब अपने vendors को पैसे दूं या कोई नया business start कर लूं. Mhmm. क्योंकि vendors इतने पैसे थे नहीं कि सारे vendors को मैं दे देता. तो ख़राब तो फिर भी होना था. तो मैंने कहा चलो chance लेते हैं क्या पता कोई पैसे वन जाए तो सब कुछ दे देंगे. तो we took that money and we, you know, tried this out. So, this is how we started the EVs in our business but it's been a, it's been a great process and we have been functioning very well in this. हमारा cash वाला का sugar उसके बाद से बहुत बेहतर हो गया और अब उसके बाद पैसे हम reinvest करते थे. जो हमें profit मिला, हमने इसी business में वापस डाला, हमने कुछ profit नहीं निकाला. जो एक रुपया बना या दस बना या जो भी बना सब सारा इस profit में वापस डलता गया. फिर मेरे पास कुछ Chinese मेरे colleagues थे जिनको मैंने pitch करना start किया कि आप हमारे business में invest करें. जो कि basically आपने provide कर रहे थे OEMs थे या Yes. Ok. जो मेरे suppliers थे. तो मैंने उनसे बातचीत करनी शुरू की कि आप हमें यह product supply करते ही हैं and the market size आपके सामने है, grow कर रहे हैं. हम आपके सामने हैं, हम, you know, we are working very hard in front of you and उनके साथ मेरी जान पहचान कुछ चार पांच साल से थी पहले. जितना शेर तुम उनको दे रहे थे वह शेर तुम मुझे दे दो. Interesting. So let's just try to work it out and that somehow checked for us. Interesting. I would say that is one of the best decision. वह बहुत ही एक extempored decision था मेरा. Probably I was only one or maybe मेरे साथ कोई एक अद्ध friend थे who were aligned in this decision. No one else was even aligned in that part but we took that decision and that became a very very good thing for us. Why? Because he was into that industry for twenty years in China. So, उसको सब पता था कि मैंने कहां से लेना है, क्या करना है, कौन कौन vendor है, कौन consumer है. फिर उसने अपनी चार साल India में गुज़ारे हुए थे. So he knew how the sub content works as well, इनको क्या चाहिए. तो वह जो experience हमें वहां से मिल गया as our partner in China. I think that was something really really special for us. So that is one part of having more cash flow with us. Then after that we also pushed to an accelerator. एक virtual accelerator का नाम accelerator prosperity, sorry their complete name. उनका एक fund था where they wanted to support the players in EV startups ताकि वो बेहतर perform कर सके इस industry में. So they evaluated a lot of companies and eventually they landed with us and they also gave us some cash flow without any interest. We have very easy installments to pay them back, that too after I think two three years. So that also supported us and Alam Durla we had been profitable from day one, Alam Durla. So we have never taken out any money, ना neither me, neither my partners, neither the Chinese like nobody has ever taken out money. So हम सबका वही झंडा है कि शायद हमारा घर कहीं और से चलो चल जाएंगे लेकिन हमें यह इस business के लिए सिर्फ इसको भराने के लिए काम करना है. हमें यहां से पैसे निकालने नहीं है. Right. So अभी तक हमने से liquidation उस हिसाब से नहीं की. Partners आपके इसमें कौन कौन हैं जो कि मतलब equity holding partners हैं? Yeah, yeah. I have a partner from China. He's my partner to this business, जिन्होंने यहां invest किया था. Then I have a local partner over here. He's a marketing guy. He looks after the sales over here. So we are three people then. I have a brother over here. He looks after the detail. So we are three, four people working around this business. Nice. और दूसरा मुझे यह बताएं कि आपने local VCs को at any point pitch किया because I am curious. You did go for an accelerator.

Muzamil

Pakistan में हमने बिहतर बिहतर million dollar भी आता देखा है. You know, we had this entire boom and then bust cycle. अब वह finally recover कर रहा है और वह कर रहा है but दरमियान में तो दो हज़ार बाइस में तो ऐसे लगा था कि बस जी अब तो billion dollar company निकल गई निकल गई. फिर उसके बाद देखा तो वह गया कि सब सब तबाह हो गया. अब वह finally एकदम, you know, एक grey area में दुनियान में आकर बैठ रहा है. Did you never approach VCs in the first place या what was that experience like?

Guest 2

मैंने Pakistan में सब VCs को pitch किया है. अच्छा. Directly or indirectly. I don't think कोई भी ऐसा re node VC होगा जिनको मैंने pitch नहीं किया हुआ या but I think they were looking into different model. एक तो when I started pitching to the VCs that was in '23 mostly and you can say in the first half of 2024. उसके बाद से मेरी pitch तो कम हो गई थी because हम खुद ही cash flow positive थे तो हम खुद उसको manage रहे थे. I think generally we were that time. You paid the worst time as well, right? Yes. Everybody was very conservative. Not only the worst time. That was one the worst time for the VCs to invest in any business. Secondly, that was the worst time to invest in EV business, in a hardware business. At that time VCs were more looking to invest in software business. Yeah, yeah. You know, उस वक्त वह Finca, वह भी चल रहा था, the Finca type things, you know. Yeah. But investing in a hardcore, business for any VC at that point of time was a very very different thing I would say. Although एक आध landing हुई भी थी इस time के अंदर, हमारे एक company है in our space. दो companies I think raise किया था, एक ने 23 में किया था, एक ने 24 में किया था. So raises हुए भी हैं ऐसे नहीं है कि नहीं हुए but again वह swappable models के हुए हैं. So VCs का जो थोड़ा सा soft corner रहा है EV industry के लिए वह सिर्फ़ swappable के लिए रहा है. मैं कभी भी किसी VC को pitch देता था तो वह मेरे से swappable के बारे में इस्तेमाल करते थे. मैं बहुत bluntly, बहुत honestly उनको

Muzamil

Obviously, there is one aspect of I mean, मुझे यह बात समझ नहीं आती and this is my experience as well with a lot of VCs and investors in Pakistan कि they are either they are going to go look at the West and say कि यार बस वहां पर वह model है तो मुझे ढूंढे दो कि इस model का local 3X growth? And then आपको उसके हिसाब से आपका वह कर रहा है cash flow positive है, profitability है. I mean, yes, I would want to invest in things that I feel like are interesting but as a as an investor I should be married to the numbers more so than what vibes and specially after 2022 and the collapse of vibes and you know grocery startup and this and that. तो फिर तो वैसे ही आपको यह समझ आ जानी चाहिए कि यार, you know, maybe the VCs that are currently here and no disrespect to any of them. They're doing good work, but maybe they're also inexperienced in terms of really understanding the market and what may or may not work. Right? And so what did your books look like at that time? Did they not

Guest 2

look interesting enough for them to say, Okay, maybe you're not the swappable model, but clearly your work shows that it's growing? So the book seems very interesting to me but maybe not to them. I would say I will take very positively about the mean pitching to the VCs because मैंने तकरीबन जितने बड़े नाम हैं सबको directly या indirectly pitch किया हुआ है. उनको pitch करने से पहले मैं at least एक हफ्ता बहुत workout करता था कि कैसी slides होंगे, क्या क्या data मैंने share करना है, numbers अच्छे होने चाहिए, ये चीज़ें यहां डालनी हैं. पैसे तो नहीं मिले लेकिन उस सबसे इतनी तैयारी हो गई थी कि वह सब चीज़ें अगले दिन में अपना काम इस्तेमाल करता था. Right. Because वह data इकट्ठा हो जाता था उससे. तो I think VCs how they function I am not very sure of what do they want. जब भी हमने उनको pitch किया तो obviously they were very interested in swappable model. Obviously कुछ मोमालिक में वह अच्छा चलता है. वह यहां पर उसको replicate करना चाहते होंगे but the amount of business they do शायद किसी का पचास million dollar का fund है, $100,000,000 का fund है, हमारा बहुत छोटा सा business है. तो we are not, we cannot capable of questioning them कि मतलब आप ठीक जगह पैसे नहीं लगा रहे हैं because obviously they are doing a better job. They are handling more cash flow. Right. But and plus मेरे जैसे सौ लोग रोज़ उनके पास जाते होंगे कि मैं बहुत अच्छा काम कर रहा मेरे numbers end, this and that, आप पैसे लगाएं. तो मतलब, they would have a lot of choices. So, I don't know where we lacked in that part but I would say कि I learned a lot from that part pitching to all of the VCs.

Muzamil

Makes sense. Do you have a number of what your revenues look like right now? So

Guest 2

last fiscal year, we did US7 million dollars Interesting.

Muzamil

What's the target for this year?

Guest 2

This year, we are definitely going to do 3x, अच्छा, चलिए.

Muzamil

Sounds good. Think that's the number that I actually came up with as well. मैंने आपकी वह एक one seventy seven वाली bike लगा करके ख़ुद 3,000 से multiplier लगाया. That came out to be half 1,000,000,000 or roughly $2,000,000. $1,800,000 तो वह multiply by 12 even that 20,000,000. Interesting. Yeah yeah yeah. चलिए sir, I'm gonna come towards the wrap at the one hour forty six minute mark. I'm curious. Couple of questions actually. पहला तो मुझे यह बताएं कि हर जो जो जो Pakistan में इंसान है क्योंकि होता मसला मेरा एक मसला यह रहा है कि जब मैं लोगों से बात करता हूं ना तो Pakistan में we're also very wary off कि किसी को पैसा off नहीं करना, right? So हर आपके सबके अच्छे अच्छे side पर रहना है वरना लोग ego के ऊपर बड़ी चीज़ें कर जाते हैं. And so it's मैं पहले से वह चीज़ बताना चाहता हूं कि इस सवाल का जो मकसद है वह एक एक एक positive तरीक़े से चीज़ों को solve करना है rather than किसी के ऊपर pin pinpoint करना But I'm asking all startups कि if there is one policy recommendation or one thing that you could fix about the industry that that annoys you, that stops you from the growth, that makes your processes inefficient, What would that look like in Pakistan for you?

Guest 2

Again, मेरा perspective बहुत different है. I would say, don't fix industry, fix yourself. Fix your business, fix your numbers, fix your product, fix your service, fix your team. I would say fix anything which is fixable by you because we as a startup वैसे भी हमारी बौदा पाड़ नहीं होती. So we cannot fix anything out of our scope. So I think we should be very very very focused on the things जहां locus of control हमारे पास है and जो directly हम impact कर सकते हैं and भले वह बहुत छोटा सा impact होगा, भले so for me the EV marshal has grown very well but it's not कि मैं पिछले दो साल से सिर्फ मेहनत कर रहा हूं. So मतलब, I have been doing the same amount of hard work from past thirteen years since 2012. Like, I don't remember a day when I took a day off. तो it's not कि अभी मेहनत किया. तो I would say just stick to your fundamentals, learn every day, be a better person every day and just fix your controllables. I would say

Muzamil

rest, अलाह will do everything, इंशाला. Are there any problems that you tend to face that I mean you've been doing business with China, you've seen, you've probably studied other markets as well. तो आप देखते आप कहते हैं यार Pakistan में यह ख़ाब है, China में यह नहीं है. It would have been business would have been so much easier if I was doing this in China, right? Is there any Sir उसके लिए तो अलग podcast करना पड़ेगा.

Guest 2

A lot of them जी. देखिए challenges यहां बहुत हैं. Like, what I talk to Chinese? Because I I have been to China a lot. I have really a lot of friends, मैंने China का शायद कुछ शहर होगा जो मैंने नहीं घुमा हुआ, I can speak a little as well so I interact with them a lot too. The main difference between China and our country, in terms of business I am talking only about, is that we, they are going with the wind, we are going against the wind. That's how simply I can put it up and कई दफा हमारी external forces को महसूस होता कि भाई मज़ा नहीं आ रहा थोड़ा आप help भी कर दो. फिर कहते हैं कि नहीं अभी भी थोड़ा सा कुछ रह गया है, ऊपर से stone फेंक दुन के ऊपर, थोड़ा सा एक आध, you know, खड़ाई बना दो. So that how challenging it becomes in Pakistan. But again, having said that, I think if we just focus on our controllables,

Muzamil

I think we can No, definitely. जो जो दो हज़ार बाइस का downtrend था, दो हज़ार तेईस का. अब मैं बात कर रहा हूं. I'm you're probably in my series. You're the fifth or sixth that I'm doing. It's fascinating. Right? I've I've most of the startups that I'm speaking to, they're doing like and they're not, you know, textile baron coming into a business. They're just ordinary people starting an ordinary company. $15.20, $30,000,000, $100,000,000. Pakistan में तो हमें यही आवाज़ आ रही थी कि कुछ भी नहीं हो सकता. But जो चुपकर के सरनी जा रखकर अपना काम कर रहे हैं, you know, they're doing incredible work. I think that's the biggest for me. The takeaway from this series as well is कि, you know, either you can sit and cry about it or you can have a growth mentality. मैं यह नहीं कह रहा मुल्क की खातिर, इसकी खातिर, उसकी खातिर, opportunity है. आप अगर selfish आदमी भी हैं ना, आप अगर genuine value provide करने वाले हैं तो you can get rich and you can create something incredible. It's a it's a mindset. It's the growth mentality with which you have to approach it. I'm gonna, wrap this up. Last question. Generally, I ask all of my guests 450 episodes. I've asked almost everybody. You're 36 years old. Twenty five years later, you'd be 61, give or take right about the age of retirement. Yeah, twenty five years later, twenty fifty के अंदर. जाहिर, आपने अभी बताया कि जी Pakistan के अंदर आप business कर रहे हैं, उसके अपने challenges भी हैं. आप China घूम फिर कर आए हैं, बाकी भी जगहों पर I'm sure गए होंगे. जो आपका business है उसके अंदर I think जो interesting insight है ना वह यह है कि you're able to completely introduce a new segment into a पाकिस्तानी market and by proxy of that And so वह जो एक standard दिमाग़ में thought आती है, वह शायद on some level you're able to break from away from that and you're able to see कि, you know, yes, people can change, yes, consumers can change, and yes, newer generation potentially is much more open to newer and bigger and better things. And so with that energy, I want to understand how do you see Pakistan twenty five years from now in 2050 without ifs and buts of कि अगर government ने यह कर लिया, इसने यह कर लिया, इसने यह कर लिया. I want to see जो इस वक़्त आपकी feeling है Pakistan की, उसको extrapolate करें और just give me an image of what 2050 का Pakistan looks like to you.

Guest 2

सबसे पहले तो you said that I'll be probably retiring in '61. Chenyotti shakes never retire. So we we we work up till we are there. Right. So so talking about Pakistan 2050, हमारे professor थे in masters when I was in 2012. So, फिर दी साहब. So, उस time पर Pakistan बहुत नाज़क मोड़ से दोबारा गुज़रा था. काफ़ी situation troublesome थी. तो वह काफ़ी live lessons देते थे. किसी ने उनसे पुछा कि, you know Pakistan का क्या बनेगा ना? How will it function? तो वह और flashback में चले गए. उन्होंने कहा कि मैं जब US में पढ़ा था he started laughing first. वह पंजाबी बोलते थे फिर उन्होंने और flashback में गए कहते यार मैं जब college पढ़ा था तो now he is talking about seventies. तो उस time भूटो दौर था and again Pakistan दुबारा नादुकमराह Hill से गुज़रा था. तो कहते हैं मैं भी उस time यही सोच में था कि you know, कुछ मसला है Pakistan का क्या बनेगा? तो I would probably hold on to that statement कि it's not going anywhere. We have a population of two fifty million people, documented मतलब इससे काफी ज़्यादा होगी. Twenty fifty की बात करें तो यह number शायद double हो चुका आएगा. इतनी बड़ी population का you know, you can't you know just Discount that. You can't ignore them. इन्होंने खाना है, पीना है, चलना है, घूमना है, scooter चलानी है. तो तो I don't think कि Pakistan is going anywhere. That's the first thing and secondly obviously with the population comes the economic side as well, वह होनी है. Hope आपने काम ने नहीं करनी but still we are hopeful कि things will or might get better इंशालाह and but whatever it is the economy will be there, the business will be there and we'll always have opportunities over here.

Muzamil

Makes sense and I think अगर जो हमारा recent stand off हुआ है with India तो उसने एक चीज़ मैंने ना मैं जब वह देख रहा था ना बड़े मुश्किल हालात थे और उस time के ऊपर जो है वह भी जब मिज़ाइलें वगैरह आ कर इस्लाहाबाद में गिरी तो they'll it was too close to home कि यार यह भी हो रहा है Pakistan के अंदर. And then the the the planes got shot down and मेरे दिमाग़ में ना दो हज़ार सत्रह का champions trophy आई जिसमें एक catch drop हुआ था और अगली ball के ऊपर वह catch पकड़ा था और commentator ने वह हो रहा था Pakistan at its best one moment down and the next moment up. Right? And Pakistan का पिछले तीन साल have been literally like that. You know, May में I think यह stand off हुआ है और आप May के उस दिन के पिछले दो साल देखें और उस दिन के बाद का Pakistan देखें और आप देखें तो हर दिन ख़बर आती है कि वह रूसी prime minister भी पीछे लगा हुआ है वह. American president भी पीछे लगा हुआ और कितने भी चल ही जा रहा है. I mean, it's, you know, it's a it's a fascinating, turbulent country. But I think that's the beauty of it as well. I would definitely echo those thoughts कि यार Pakistan निचलना है, economy ने grow करना है. Either you can be part of the growing story or you can be part of the negative वह वाली story. साथ भाई, thank you so much for taking the time out. I wish you all the very best. It's super super exciting to hear कि एक innovative business, someone who did not have the family muscle कि यार मेरे पास करोड़ों अरबों हैं, मैंने जाकर pump किया और वह कर लिया. You know, really grassroots से निकलकर इस तरह का innovative business बनाना, उसको profitable करना, उसको scale करना, दिल को ख़ुशी मिलती है जब इस तरह की कहानी सुनने को मिलती है. Again, this is coming from साढ़े चार सौ कहानियां सुनने के बाद. So I wish you all the very best. दिल से दुआएं. I hope that you guys are able to scale this. And in the future, what I would like to see is, you know, this brand being a a hardcore पाकिस्तानी designed in Pakistan, doing a lot of other things as well in Pakistan.

Guest 2

Wish you all the very best and thank you for taking the time out. Thank you very much. आपका भी बहुत बहुत शुक्रिया for having me over here. I think हम भी अपने career के अंदर हमारे लिए भी बहुत ज़्यादा moments होते हैं जहां हमें भी कुछ credibility मिलती है कि हां कुछ तो ठीक हो गया है. तो I think coming to your podcast had been always one of those things कि

Muzamil

हां, कुछ खेल लिया है. Thank you. Am honored. Thanks a lot for having me here as well. Thank you. Thank you so much and for all of you guys मुझे बताएं आप लोग क्या electric vehicles लेने का सोच रहे हैं पिछले दिनों BYD से भी बात हुई और भी you know Pakistan में आजकल तो एक के बाद एक launches हो रही हैं. How do you feel about the EV revolution globally? Pakistan के अंदर government की policies जो आ रही हैं? क्या आपको लगता है कि वाक़ई अब time आ गया है? क्या हमें EV की तरफ़ move कर लेना चाहिए? Let me know about EV जो brand itself है. Check out their products. आपको क्या पसंद आती पसंद आई? क्या आपको उसमें you know ऐसी चीज़ें लग रही हैं जो कि शायद आपको रोक रही हैं लेने से? Let let us know in the comment section. I'm sure साद भाई would be reading and taking that feedback as well. But I would love to know your opinions. Nonetheless, this was सय्यद मुज़मिल हसन ज़ेदी. You are watching God behind things. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.