Zyp Technologies sells Lahore an electric motorbike and keeps the battery
Zyp's swap stations promise a one minute refill and a lifetime battery. Two funding rounds and two fleet trials later, the network still lives in Lahore.
Zyp Technologies sells an electric motorbike without the most expensive part of it. The battery stays with the company. A rider pulls into a Zyp Energy station in Lahore, swaps a drained pack for a charged one in about a minute, and pays by the swap and the kilometre rather than for the battery itself.
Zyp, founded in 2022 by Hassan Khan and Imran Afzal, calls itself the country's first indigenous battery swapping electric mobility company. It builds the bike, the swap kiosk and the software that ties them together at a factory in Sundar Industrial Estate, Lahore.
A policy and a licence
Khan, the chief executive, has said the federal electric vehicle policy is what brought the founders together. The timing was practical. By October 2023 the Engineering Development Board had issued manufacturing licences for electric motorbikes to 31 companies, of which at least six were making or assembling bikes, according to the board's general manager for policy, Asim Ayaz.
The market is large: Pakistan has about 23 million registered motorbikes. Customs duty on electric bike batteries, motors and drivetrains was set at 1 percent against 15 percent on non electric parts, and sales tax on two and three wheelers was fixed at 1 percent for five years.
Selling the bike, keeping the battery
Zyp's pitch targets three complaints about electric bikes: a high upfront price, fear of running flat, and slow charging. Under what the company calls battery as a service, the buyer gets the motorbike, the ZUM 2000 (Zyp Utility Motorcycle), and swaps batteries at any Zyp Energy station. The rider opens the seat, unlocks the pack, slides it into an empty slot and lifts out a fresh one that is blinking at the station.
Pricing is built on use. The Zyp Unlimited plan charges Rs2.5 per kilometre for battery use plus Rs195 per swap, and promises a lifetime battery and unlimited range in return. Zyp says that works out to 30 to 40 percent less than running a petrol bike. Typical range is 60 to 100 kilometres a charge, averaging about 70, and the motorbike carries a two year or 50,000 kilometre warranty. The ZUM 2000 comes in six colours.
The bike is sold as a work machine for fleets as much as for individual riders. Zyp's fleet software tracks location, raises accident alerts and includes anti theft features.
Money and first customers
In September 2023 Zyp announced a $1.2 million seed round led by Indus Valley Capital. The money was for an assembly line able to build up to 8,000 bikes a year, with bikes priced from about Rs150,000 to Rs450,000 depending on variant. The company said it planned 4,000 charging stations nationwide in time. Ten trial units were built, with mass production planned for March 2024 and 60 swap stations in Lahore within a year.
Aatif Awan, a founding partner at Indus Valley Capital, said at the time that the founders had designed the bikes and the swapping system for local conditions.
“Zyp team has meticulously designed their electric motorbikes and battery swapping to perform well in the local environment.”
The second round came in July 2024: $1.5 million at the pre Series A stage, led by the UAE investor Shorooq Partners, with Indus Valley Capital and several angels joining. By then Zyp could point to two fleet trials. Chughtai Lab, Pakistan's largest diagnostics company, ran the bikes for six months over more than 70,000 kilometres and then made what Zyp called a significant purchase. The courier company TCS ran a three month trial that Zyp said went well.
The money was earmarked for more than 60 swap stations and 1,000 ZUM 2000 motorcycles in Lahore within 12 months, and for a mass release in several Gulf countries, especially the UAE, in 2025.
“Our main objective is to reduce carbon footprint significantly through electric motorbikes.”
What the network looks like
Zyp's locations page lists ten sites: a Zyp Experience Center, swap stations at two TCS branches, two Chughtai Lab branches and a METRO cash and carry outlet, a few other business sites, and the factory. Lahore is the only city named. The company has not published a count of bikes on the road or completed swaps, and no public confirmation of the 1,000 bike target or the UAE release turned up.
Zyp has since added a second route to scale. Its franchise offer invites retailers and other site owners to host a station and take a share of the revenue from each swap, with operation left to Zyp because the stations need no human operators. The company says a franchisee's investment can be paid off in as little as 40 months, and that its network software reports each station's usage so partners can see how their share is calculated.
Zyp has also shown its machines in public. Its news page lists a stand at the IDEAS 2024 in Karachi, test drive days for the ZUM 2000 at the COLABS coworking space in Lahore, and a visit to the factory by the US Ambassador and the US Consul General in September 2024. That September 2024 visit is the most recent item on the page.
The long range plan was larger than one city. At the seed stage the company spoke of 4,000 charging stations nationwide, and Arab News reported that it intended to reach that figure within five years.
Beyond Khan, the company's leadership page names Laiq Chughtai as head of product and go to market, Dr Hasan Arshad as head of research and development and Rubas Zaheer as head of operations and supply chain. Indus Valley Capital and Shorooq are the investors shown.
Khan has also asked future governments to keep the electric vehicle policy in place and build on it, arguing that it can cut Pakistan's oil dependence and improve urban air quality.
