What does it really cost to import an electric bike from China to Pakistan?

The landed-cost calculator

Every input below is editable. Defaults come from the sources listed at the bottom of this page — an indicative Made-in-China export listing, indicative freight quotes, a practitioner tax rate card and the State Bank of Pakistan’s published open-market rate — and the label on each field tells you how well verified it is. Change any number to match your own supplier quote.

The calculator assumes sales tax is charged on the duty-paid value (CIF plus all customs duties) and withholding on the customs value — the standard import convention, but one your clearing agent should confirm for HS 8711.60 specifically. Demurrage is deliberately excluded: clearing within the 3–7 free days at Karachi avoids it entirely. Nothing here is a quotation — read our disclaimer, then treat the output as the first number in a conversation with a supplier and a clearing agent.

The duty stack on a CBU electric bike

Electric motorcycles enter Pakistan under HS heading 8711.60 (motorcycles with electric motor for propulsion), confirmed in the FBR tariff for FY 2025-26. What we could not verify — and say so plainly — is the statutory line-level rate on that heading: the FBR tariff document does not parse machine-readably, so the table below separates what is officially confirmed from what is industry reporting of policy and what is purely indicative.

Two overlapping policy frameworks sit behind the concessionary numbers: the National EV Policy 2025-30 (approved, announced officially) and the Auto Industry Development Policy 2026-31, which industry reporting credits with the 1% + 1% treatment and an 85% localisation target for EV two-wheelers. The Board of Investment officially lists a concession titled “Low rate of Customs Duty on import of EV CKD & Specific Parts” — confirming the concession exists, though the published page does not state the rate.

CKD kits: the 1% route and its conditions

Almost nobody ships finished e-bikes to Pakistan at scale — the brands on our brand directory import knock-down kits and assemble locally, which is why the kit side of the tariff matters more than the CBU side. Electric motorcycle parts fall under heading 8714, and the concessionary treatment reported for EV components is the same 1% customs duty with 1% sales-tax treatment in place of 18%.

The conditions are the catch. The concession is aimed at registered manufacturers and assemblers operating under the EDB / PAVE framework — the Pakistan Accelerated Vehicle Electrification programme, with a reported Rs 9 billion earmarked for e-bike and rickshaw subsidies. A commercial importer who brings in a “kit” without that registration risks having the consignment assessed as ordinary parts at standard rates, which erases the entire advantage. Our CKD assembly explainer walks through how the established brands structure this, and our supplier profiles cover the Chinese factories behind the kits.

For an individual buyer the practical conclusion is blunt: importing a single CBU bike through the passenger or gift schemes is not what these concessions were designed for, and the numbers in the calculator above — a landed cost close to local retail — show why. The 1% regime exists to build local assembly, not to subsidise one-off imports.

Freight, containers and clearance

Sea freight from China to Karachi is quoted per container, not per bike, so your per-unit freight depends entirely on how densely you pack. Published route guides put a 20-foot container at USD 800–3,000 with 18–35 days transit — an indicative market range, not a quote. The calculator defaults to the midpoint (USD 1,900) and to 25 bikes per container, a packing density we could not verify from any published source; CBU scooters crate-packed are commonly estimated at 20–30 per 20-foot box, but confirm with your forwarder before relying on it.

Clearance timing is where budgets quietly die. Karachi terminals give roughly 3–7 free days before demurrage starts, then charge on the order of USD 75–300 per container per day — indicative figures from a Pakistani forwarder’s published guidance. A consignment that sits for two weeks while its paperwork is sorted can add thousands of dollars. Have your GD (goods declaration) documentation ready before the vessel arrives: the official Pakistan Trade Portal describes the WeBOC clearance procedure end to end.

Two cargo-specific warnings. First, lithium packs are dangerous goods for shipping — they need DG-compliant packing, documentation and surcharges that lead-acid export scooters avoid, which is one more reason the verified USD 360–450 listings are for lead-acid models. Second, marketplace FOB prices exclude QC, MOQ commitments (the verified listing shows MOQ 26) and inland-haulage on both ends.

Worked example: a USD 405 export scooter

Here is the calculator’s default scenario worked through in full, at the State Bank of Pakistan’s published open-market closing rate for 6 October 2026 (USD buying 277.64 / selling 278.88 — the selling rate applies when you buy dollars to pay a supplier).

Now compare that with what the bike would cost on a Pakistani showroom floor. Our October 2026 price list has credible new electric scooters retailing from PKR 97,000 (Evee Flipper) to PKR 174,000 (Metro T9 Eco) — straddling the imported bike’s landed cost before you have paid a single rupee of clearing fees, inland transport or dealer margin. That gap is the entire reason the Pakistani market is built on CKD assembly at scale, and why a one-off import only makes sense for a business case the calculator cannot see: bulk packing density, a registered assembler’s concession, or a model genuinely unavailable locally.

Confirm these before you pay a supplier

This page is deliberately honest about what could not be verified. Before any real transaction, get written answers on:

1. The statutory rate on 8711.60. The FBR tariff PDF exists but does not parse machine-readably, so the line-level CD, ACD and RD on electric motorcycles are unverified here. A licensed clearing agent can print the exact tariff line in minutes.

2. Whether your import qualifies for the concession. The 1% + 1% treatment is industry reporting of official policy; the operative SROs, the EDB/PAVE registration conditions and the 85% localisation schedule determine whether it applies to you. Ask for the SRO numbers in writing.

3. A real clearing quote. No verifiable 2026 PKR range for clearing-agent fees was found — the calculator deliberately defaults it to zero rather than guess. Get itemised quotes from at least two agents at Karachi.

4. The lithium premium. Verified FOB listings cover lead-acid export scooters; a verified 72V lithium FOB range was not found this pass, and lithium adds DG packing and freight surcharges on top. Quote the bike you actually want, pack and all.

5. The exchange rate on your payment day. We used the SBP open-market closing rate for 6 October 2026. It will not be the rate on the day you pay — check the latest SBP publication and adjust the calculator. If a supplier quote looks wrong against these numbers, or you have a verified correction, tell us and we will update the page with a dated note.