Air Link sets 4 November launch for Air EV electric bikes, starting with imported units
The Lahore smartphone assembler will source its first bikes abroad, then move to local assembly. Its Airfin instalment platform is meant to help sell them.
Air Link Communication, the Lahore smartphone assembler, will launch an electric bike brand called Air EV on 4 November, with the first deliveries about a week later. Management gave the date at the company's annual general meeting, according to a note from brokerage Arif Habib Limited published on 27 October.
The move takes Air Link into the automotive business for the first time. The company makes, distributes and sells smartphones, smart TVs and wearables, and assembles devices for several international electronics brands. Smartphones remain its main business, and management wants to sell the bikes on instalments alongside its televisions and air conditioners.
Imports first, assembly later
The first bikes will not be built in Pakistan. Management told the meeting that it will buy electric bikes from international partners offering competitive prices at the start, then move gradually to local assembly and manufacturing. The bikes will run on replaceable lithium ion batteries, which Air Link will buy locally at first. Its long term target is up to 95 percent localisation. Until the Sundar Green line is running, the bikes on sale from 4 November will be imported units.
The plant approved in July
The launch comes about three and a half months after the board decision on 23 July. Air Link told the Pakistan Stock Exchange that its directors had approved an electric bike assembly project under a new in house brand, to be set up at its existing manufacturing facility in the Sundar Green Special Economic Zone in Lahore. The board authorised management to take all regulatory, commercial and operational steps needed to carry it out, and the company filed the notice as material information under Section 96 of the Securities Act, 2015.
Air Link's share price rose 2.10 percent to Rs135.43 on the day the filing was made public. The filing gave no investment amount, production capacity or start date.
Instalments through Airfin
Air Link's Airfin platform offers buy now pay later financing on smartphones, televisions, air conditioners and electric bikes. Management expects monthly instalments to make the products more affordable, support margins and offset slower mobile phone sales, the Arif Habib note said.
The meeting also produced appliance targets. Air Link expects to sell 65,000 air conditioners in 2027 and 95,000 in 2028, and 50,000 televisions in 2027 and 65,000 in 2028.
