Master Changan to Launch CHANGAN NEVO in Pakistan, Starting With First Range-Extended 4×4 Pickup

LAHORE: Master Changan Motors Limited (MCML) is bringing CHANGAN NEVO, the Chinese group’s mass-market new-energy brand, to Pakistan — and it is opening with an unusual pick: the NEVO Hunter, which the company says will be the country’s first and only range-extended electric (REEV) 4×4 pickup truck.

Pricing, specifications and a launch window have not been disclosed. MCML said further details would follow “soon.”

The announcement extends an expansion that has been running at pace. MCML recently introduced the DEEPAL E07, marketed locally as Pakistan’s first transformer EV, and followed it with the locally assembled DEEPAL S05 REEV — the more consequential of the two, as it moved range-extender technology onto a Pakistani assembly line rather than an import manifest.

NEVO becomes the third Changan brand to reach Pakistan under a portfolio strategy CEO Danial Malik first previewed at the Pakistan Auto Show 2025 under the tagline “One for Everyone.” That roadmap committed the company to four passenger-vehicle brands and 11 products spanning ICE, HEV, PHEV, REEV and BEV powertrains — a deliberately wide net at a time when most players in Pakistan are still choosing between petrol and hybrid.

The four pillars are distinct by design. Changan covers mainstream mobility, pairing technology and value for volume buyers. NEVO is the accessibility play, aimed at pulling electrification into the mass market rather than leaving it to early adopters. DEEPAL sits above it as progressive premium new-energy. AVATR, still to arrive, is positioned as intelligent luxury.

It is the same architecture Changan uses globally, and MCML’s argument is that Pakistan is now large enough and its own footprint deep enough to support it.

“NEVO is our commitment to bring mass electrification to Pakistan by making intelligent new-energy mobility progressive, practical and accessible at scale,” Malik said.

Locally, NEVO is slated for five models over three years across sedan, SUV and pickup segments, including three new-energy products covering BEV, PHEV and REEV powertrains within the first year alone. That cadence would make it one of the faster brand rollouts the local market has seen.

Globally, the brand is young but moving quickly. Launched in 2023 as Changan’s mass new-energy label, NEVO has recorded more than 600,000 cumulative sales in three years, with three models ranking in the top three of their respective segments. Changan has set a target of 1.5 million annual sales for the brand by 2030, making it a central plank of the group’s electrification plans rather than a side project.

Its international portfolio spans intelligent sedans, SUVs and lifestyle vehicles built on battery-electric and range-extended platforms — the latter increasingly favoured in markets where charging coverage is thin.

MCML enters this phase from a stronger position than most new entrants. The company became Pakistan’s fourth-largest automotive brand in 2025, with more than 75,000 vehicles on the road — a figure built in a comparatively short run and across multiple segments.

Behind that sits the retail infrastructure the electrification push depends on: 29 EV-equipped dealerships across 19 cities, which the company describes as Pakistan’s largest dedicated EV-ready network. For a brand selling plug-in products, the after-sales and charging-support side of that network matters as much as the showroom count.

The choice of a 4×4 truck as NEVO’s opening act is the most telling detail in the announcement.

Pakistan’s double-cab segment has long been diesel territory, bought by buyers — commercial fleets, agricultural users, contractors, upcountry operators — who prize range, payload and refuelling certainty over running costs. It is, on paper, the least likely place to start an electric brand.

That is precisely what makes a range-extender interesting. A REEV runs on an electric drivetrain but carries a small combustion engine that acts purely as a generator, topping up the battery rather than driving the wheels. The result is EV-style refinement and running costs without the charging anxiety that has kept Pakistan’s electric vehicles largely urban and largely second-car purchases.

If the NEVO Hunter lands at a competitive price, it will test something the local market has not yet answered: whether electrification can sell to buyers who actually need their vehicle to work.

Further details are expected in the coming weeks.