Vlektra's instalment plans add up to Rs369,200, which is Rs30,200 above the price its website now shows

Vlektra's instalment plans for its Velocity 180 electric motorcycle, announced on 15 May 2026, are described as zero markup and never state a price. The arithmetic supplies one. The 12 month plan asks Rs74,000 down and Rs24,600 a month, a total of Rs369,200. The 18 month plan, Rs122,000 down and 18 payments of Rs13,700, comes to Rs368,600, and the 24 month plan, Rs170,000 down and 24 payments of Rs8,300, to Rs369,200. All three match the Rs369,000 that the company's website shows struck through beside a lower Rs339,000. The page carries no date, but a buyer on any plan pays about Rs30,000, or 9 percent, more than that current figure. The gap matters because Vlektra's business rests on making a bike that costs more than twice a Honda CD70 feel affordable.

Vlektra began as research in a Karachi garage in 2020, according to a March 2023 profile by Synergyzer. The four cofounders are Syed Raza Mohsin, Fatiq Bin Khursheed, Jawaid Iqbal and Ahmed Murtaza Memon, and Mohsin is chief executive. The first model, the BOLT, launched in December 2021, and the company said its first batch sold out within two months.

What the first sales show

An Aga Khan Development Network profile published in November 2024 says Vlektra sold more than 500 motorbikes in its first 10 months of operations and brought in more than $1 million. It raised seed money from a few private investors. Mohsin put Pakistan's motorbike sales at about 1.5 million a year, so 500 bikes is about 0.03 percent of one year's market. The sources reviewed give no sales total after that first stretch, no later funding round and no accounts, because the company is private.

The price list has moved since the BOLT sold for Rs449,000 in March 2023. The website now lists the BOLT at Rs549,000, with Rs609,000 struck through, which is 22 percent above the 2023 price. It lists the Velocity 180 at Rs339,000, the V180SE at Rs399,000 and the Retro at Rs279,000, each with a higher struck through price beside it. The Retro was Rs299,000 in 2023, so it is 7 percent cheaper. The company has added cheaper models beside the original rather than only raising prices.

What the instalment table says

The three plans differ in how much the buyer pays first. Rs74,000 is 20 percent of the total, Rs122,000 is 33 percent and Rs170,000 is 46 percent. On the 24 month plan the buyer pays Rs199,200 after delivery, about 54 percent of the total. Someone, either Vlektra or an unnamed financier, carries that balance at no charge to the customer. The launch release names no lender, and the sources do not say whether Vlektra pays the financing cost or recovers it in the price.

The pitch is that the bike pays for itself in fuel. Start with the company's 2023 claim that a full charge of about 2 kWh costs around Rs100, or Rs50 a kWh. The Velocity 180 carries a 72 volt, 36 amp hour lithium iron phosphate pack, which is 2.59 kWh, so a full charge costs about Rs130. On the claimed 180 kilometres, that is 72 paisa a kilometre. The same claim implies 14.4 watt hours a kilometre, against 25 for the BOLT on its 2023 figures of about 2 kWh and 80 kilometres in sports mode. The sources cite no independent range test for either bike.

Now set a fuel saving against the cost. The following is the magazine's illustration, with its assumptions in plain view: a rider covers 30 kilometres a day, or 900 a month and 10,800 a year, and saves Rs5 a kilometre against a petrol bike. That is Rs4,500 a month. The 12 month instalment of Rs24,600 is 5.5 times the saving, and even the 24 month instalment of Rs8,300 is 1.8 times it. Profit puts a CD70 at about Rs160,000. At the website's Rs339,000 the premium is Rs179,000, which takes 35,800 kilometres to recover, or 3.3 years. At the instalment total of Rs369,200 the premium is Rs209,200, which takes 41,840 kilometres, or 3.9 years. The Rs30,200 gap alone costs about seven months of savings. A reader can replace the Rs5 with today's pump price divided by their bike's kilometres a litre, minus the electricity cost, and redo the sum.

The battery is the long bet

Vlektra's website says the battery is designed to last 15 years with no replacement. The Velocity 180 release says it supports up to 3,000 charging cycles, and the warranty is three years for the battery and two for the motor. On the claimed 180 kilometre range, 3,000 full cycles equal 540,000 kilometres, which is 50 years at 10,800 kilometres a year. The cycle count is therefore not the limit for this rider. Age is, and the three year warranty is the only period the company puts in writing. Muhammad Sabir Shaikh, an analyst, told Business Recorder in September 2025 that an electric bike battery lasts only two to three years. No source gives a replacement price. The illustrated payback of 3.3 years at the website price is longer than the three year battery warranty, so an unsubsidised buyer recovers the premium only after that cover ends, whereas the subsidised payback of 1.8 years falls inside it.

“At VLEKTRA, 70% of our motorcycle components are already localized.”

The imported parts are the battery and motor, and Mohsin said Vlektra aims for full localisation within two years. Business Recorder reports that locally produced parts face an 18 percent sales tax while imports face 1 percent. On those rates the tax system favours importing a finished battery over making one at home.

A subsidy it may or may not reach

The state is now part of the pricing. Under the PAVE programme, the Engineering Development Board pays a fixed Rs80,000 for each electric bike to pre qualified manufacturers through the State Bank, and since 5 May 2026 buyers pay the net price. The federal Economic Coordination Committee approved a second phase that day, with Rs9 billion for the fiscal year and targets of 76,000 e bikes and 2,170 rickshaws and loaders. The first phase covered 41,000 vehicles.

The subsidy is 23.6 percent of Rs339,000 and would cut the premium over a CD70 to Rs99,000, which takes 19,800 kilometres to recover, or 1.8 years at the same Rs5 saving. It would put the Velocity 180 at Rs259,000, below the Retro's Rs279,000 without subsidy. The sources reviewed do not say whether Vlektra is on the list of pre qualified manufacturers.

Who wins, and what to watch

Vlektra gains if subsidy and instalments move its buyers from curious to committed. Its website lists three showrooms in Karachi, two partner outlets in Lahore, a zonal office in Multan, a dealer in Rahim Yar Khan and three charging points in Karachi. It won the SDGs Innovative Financing Challenge Cup, run by the United Nations Development Programme and JS Bank, which reported more than 200 entrants in June 2024. Petrol bike makers lose little so far: Pakistan's 1.5 million annual sales dwarf Vlektra's reported volumes.

The next fact to find is whether Vlektra's name is on the Engineering Development Board's list of pre qualified manufacturers. If it is, the Velocity 180's net price of Rs259,000 would undercut every other Vlektra model, and the instalment table would need rewriting around it.