EV Charging Stations in Pakistan: Where You Can Actually Charge Today

Pakistan's public EV charging stations in Pakistan still number in single digits on the operators' own pages. PSO confirms two working chargers, in Islamabad and Lahore, with two more being installed on the M2 motorway. Shell's Karachi stations are signed but not yet switched on. For now, most electric car owners here charge overnight at home.

That gap between the announcements and the ground reality catches a lot of new EV buyers off guard. You read about a 3,000-station target for 2030, then go looking for a charger on your route to Lahore and find exactly one that anyone can confirm is working today.

We checked the charging networks' own websites on 5 October 2026 rather than repeating last year's press releases. PSO's electric vehicle charger page lists two live stations and two under installation. Nothing else on a public operator's site claims to be open for business right now.

Pakistan has only a handful of confirmed public chargers today

Two PSO stations are live, and a Shell-K-Electric deal for three more in Karachi is signed but not yet operating. Everything beyond that, including the national 3,000-station target, is a plan with a date attached, not a charger you can drive to this week.

Rolling out charging infrastructure is slow and capital heavy everywhere, and Pakistan started later than most. A reader planning a trip around a charger that exists only in a press release ends up stranded, so we're drawing a clear line between what's confirmed and what's promised.

PSO runs the two charging stations that actually work right now

PSO's own site names two operating chargers: one at its Capri station in F7 Markaz, Islamabad, and one at Sunshine Petroleum in Lahore. Two more are being fitted at Bhera on the M2 motorway, which would open the first charging option between the two cities.

PSO's page doesn't say what the session costs, whether you need an app, or how long a full charge takes. We're not going to guess at numbers PSO hasn't published. If you're planning to use one of these, call the station first and confirm it's running that day, because installation work can take a unit offline without warning.

The Bhera addition matters more than it sounds. Right now, an EV driver going from Islamabad to Lahore has no confirmed public charger on the motorway itself. Two units at a single service area won't fix that on their own, but it's the first step toward one.

What a PSO charging session looks like today

1. Check psopk.com for the current list before you leave.
2. Call the specific station to confirm the charger is working.
3. Drive in and park close enough for the cable to reach.
4. Plug in and start the session using the unit's controls.
5. Pay as instructed at the site, then unplug once charged.

Shell's Karachi stations are a signed plan, not a working charger

Shell Pakistan and K-Electric agreed to build three rapid chargers in Karachi, at a Defence filling station on Khayaban-e-Bahria, an Askari station in Gulshan Town, and one in Gadap Town. That agreement is real. Whether the chargers are drawing power yet is a separate question, and we could not confirm it had happened as of early October 2026.

K-Electric's side of the deal is grid work, strengthening the connection so the chargers can actually draw rapid-charging loads without tripping anything nearby. That kind of groundwork takes time, and it's usually the slower half of any charging rollout, slower than bolting the charger itself to a wall.

So treat a "Shell Recharge" sign the way you'd treat any construction site sign: it tells you what's coming, not what's open. Confirm with the station directly before you count on it.

The M2 motorway corridor is being built in stages, not all at once

PSO, BYD and HUBCO Green announced a fast-charging corridor along the M2, aimed at spacing chargers every 150 to 200 kilometres from Karachi to Peshawar. The plan talks about 128 DC fast chargers eventually. We found no PSO or partner page confirming how many of those are actually drawing power today, beyond the Bhera pair already under installation.

A motorway corridor is the single biggest thing that would change EV ownership here, because it turns a city car into a car you can drive between cities. Until it's built out, though, an EV road trip on the M2 means carrying your own backup plan: a full charge before you leave, and a realistic sense of your car's range.

The Auto Policy 2026-31 for car buyers touches on EV incentives at the import and assembly stage, but it doesn't commit the government to building chargers on a fixed schedule, so we're not treating a future network as a certainty here either.

Home charging is how most EV owners in Pakistan actually charge

With public charging this thin, home charging carries almost all the weight. Every EV sold here comes with a basic charging cable that plugs into a normal wall socket, and that alone will top up a car overnight, just slowly.

A standard household socket pushes out a trickle compared to what the car's battery can accept, so an overnight charge from near empty can take eight hours or more. That's fine for most people, since the car sits parked overnight anyway. It's a problem only if you need a fast turnaround on the same day.

• A dedicated circuit and socket, installed by an electrician, charges faster and more safely than a shared household circuit.
• Running the charging cable through a long extension cord is a fire risk at the current and duration an EV charge draws.
• A car parked in direct sun for hours loses a little range to battery cooling before you even plug in.

Setting up a home charger starts with your electricity load, not the car

Before buying a wall charger, check what electricity load your connection is actually sanctioned for. A home wired for basic lighting and a few appliances often can't take a dedicated EV charging circuit without an upgrade from the distribution company.

If your sanctioned load falls short, you apply to your DISCO to extend it, the same process households use when adding an air conditioner or a rooftop solar system. It isn't an EV-specific process; it's the general electricity load extension procedure that applies to any heavier household appliance.

Once the load is sorted, an electrician fits a dedicated socket near where the car parks. Skip the shortcuts here. A charging session pulls a steady current for hours, not the short burst a kettle or iron draws, and household wiring not rated for that can heat up.

Common questions

Is there a public EV charging network across Pakistan yet?

No. Only two PSO stations are confirmed live, in Islamabad and Lahore, with more under installation or signed but not yet operating.

Can I drive an EV from Lahore to Islamabad and charge on the way?

Not reliably yet. The M2 motorway charging units at Bhera were still being installed as of our October 2026 check.

How much does charging at a PSO station cost?

PSO's own page does not publish a per-session or per-unit price, so we are not stating one here.

Is home charging slower than a public fast charger?

Yes. A normal wall socket charges far slower than a dedicated DC fast charger, but it works overnight without you needing to go anywhere.

Do I need permission from my electricity company to install a home charger?

You need your sanctioned load checked, and an extension from your DISCO if it's too low for a dedicated EV circuit.

How we verified this

What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.

We checked PSO's electric vehicle charger page on psopk.com on 5 October 2026 for the two live stations and the two under installation at Bhera. The Shell and K-Electric Karachi stations and the PSO, BYD and HUBCO Green M2 corridor target are reported from secondary coverage of signed agreements and company statements, not confirmed on an operator's own page as live, so we have described them as planned rather than operating. We found no published price, app or payment process for any station and have not invented one.