Archive for the ‘Transportation’ Category

Made in Pakistan: Electric motorbike

Thursday, June 2nd, 2005

PakTribune reports that MS Group (can’t find their website) has successfully created Pakistan’s first, indigenous electronic motorbike. The Federal Minister of Science and Technology, Nouraiz Shakoor Khan, who incidentally also happens to be the president of the Cycling Federation of Pakistan, described the bike as a revolution for the region and a sign of Pakistan’s growing industrial stature.

Details are scarce from the article: The bike does not consume petrol, instead uses a rechargeable battery which gives it a range of upto 50kms per charge. Using electricity as a source of power lowers the bike’s running costs, which might give it an edge in the local market. Perhaps the MS Group should look into PINSTECH’s fuel cell research to increase the bike’s per-charge range.

Posted in Energy, Transportation | 1 Comment »

Pakistan’s first locally built car: REVO

Friday, April 29th, 2005

Adam Motors has come up with it’s own car: REVO (abbreviation for Revolution, I believe). The price range competes directly with Suzuki Mehran (although time will tell). Base models start at Rs.269,000 and CNG models start at Rs.299,000 (making it ~50K cheaper than the Mehran). Forbes reports that 141,000 cars will come off the production line this year. The engine for the car is built by China’s Wuling Engineering Company. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz suggested that the cars should be fitted with CNG to be environmental friendly. What about investing in the public transportation system instead? How will the current roads and traffic support the increasing automotive population? Safety doesn’t seem to be a big concern either. Given that foreign cars are already assembled locally, the only indigenous aspect of this car is the design (that probably got substantial assistance from foreign entities). Sadly, this looks like 1 step forward and 2 steps back.

Posted in Transportation | 4 Comments »