Geely in Pakistan: Bestway Unveils EX2, EX5 and Starray

Geely is officially in Pakistan. On Saturday, 24 October, Bestway Group launched the Chinese carmaker at Park View City, Islamabad, and unveiled three cars from Geely: the Geely EX2, a small electric hatchback, the Geely EX5, an electric SUV, and the Geely Starray, an SUV with a petrol engine on board to extend its range. No prices were announced. Geely in Pakistan matters for two reasons: it is one of the world's biggest car groups, and Bestway has already bought an existing assembly plant in Karachi to build its cars here. Below is what Bestway announced, how the claims made on stage hold up, who Bestway is, the brands behind Geely, and what we still don't know.

What Bestway Announced at the Geely Pakistan Launch

Geely's sole authorised distributor in Pakistan is Bestway Automotive (Private) Limited, set up in September 2025 under Bestway Cement, according to Bestway Cement's annual report. Bestway's founder, Sir Anwar Pervez, and its chairman, Lord Zameer Choudrey, attended, and Lord Choudrey handed Sir Anwar the keys to the first car. Geely streamed the evening on its Pakistan YouTube channel.

Irfan Sheikh, who runs Bestway's non-banking businesses in Pakistan, set out the plan on stage:

• Imports first, then local assembly. The first cars arrive fully built. Bestway's launch statement quotes Sheikh aiming for "locally assembled Geely vehicles on Pakistan's roads within the next few months", as The Nation published it.
• Eight dealerships in the first phase, three or four of them owned by the company, with Bestway's own workshops. Sales open in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, and other cities follow in phases.

Aaj News reported, citing a Bestway statement, a proposed warranty of up to six years or 150,000 km on the car and eight years on the battery and motor, online booking, financing through UBL, and charging through Bestway Renewable Technologies. The warranty and financing weren't mentioned on stage, and Bestway hasn't published them, so treat the warranty as proposed until it's in writing.

A Ready-Made Plant at Port Qasim

Bestway isn't starting from an empty plot. Bestway Automotive bought the business of Al-Haj Automotive, including its assembly plant at Port Qasim, Karachi, about 24.6 acres of land, buildings and machinery, under an agreement signed in December 2025. The Competition Commission cleared the deal on 28 February 2026. Sheikh puts its capacity at 25,000 vehicles a year.

It is a plant with a Geely connection already. Al-Haj built it to assemble Proton cars, and Geely owns 49.9% of Proton. ProPakistani reported in September that Bestway had also settled Proton customers' pending refunds and the plant's outstanding taxes. As of 30 June 2026, Bestway Automotive had not started production, its parent's annual report says.

Who Is Bestway Group?

Bestway is a British-Pakistani group founded by Sir Anwar Pervez, who left Pakistan for the UK in 1956. In Britain it owns Bestway Wholesale, the country's largest independent food wholesaler, and Well Pharmacy. In Pakistan it owns Bestway Cement, the country's largest cement maker, and a controlling stake in UBL. It entered cement in 1995 and banking in 2002. Cars are new to it.

On stage, Group Chief Executive Haider Choudrey put the group's turnover at "over 7 billion". That holds up in dollars. Bestway's 2025 annual report shows turnover of £5.24 billion for the year to June 2025, about $7 billion at today's exchange rate, and a September investor presentation by Bestway Cement quotes $7.9 billion for 2026. The annual report's figure includes UBL's banking income. Choudrey also said Bestway had invested over $350 million in Pakistan and created more than 20,000 jobs in the last three years, which is the company's own figure.

Geely EX2: China's Best-Selling Car of 2025

The EX2 is a small, rear-wheel-drive electric hatchback, sold in China as the Geely Xingyuan since October 2024. Sheikh called it "the number one bestselling A or B segment car across the world" and the best-selling car in China, and said it has sold a million.

Most of that checks out:

• China's number one: true. It was China's best-selling car of 2025, with 465,775 retail sales on China Passenger Car Association data, according to CnEVPost.
• The world's best-selling small car: Geely's claim, and narrower than it sounds. Geely Australia's footnote limits it to electric cars in the A and B segments in 2025, on IHS data. It is not the world's best-selling electric car. That was the Tesla Model Y, for the fourth year running.

Geely Pakistan's website quotes the EX2 at 0–100 km/h in 11.5 seconds, 30–80% charging in 25 minutes and "up to 395 km" of WLTP range. Those figures match the 39.4 kWh, 85 kW version Geely sells in Indonesia, where 395 km is quoted on the NEDC cycle, a more generous test than WLTP. Australia sells a 35.35 kWh car rated at 252 km and a 47.14 kWh car rated at 345 km, both WLTP. Bestway hasn't said which battery Pakistan gets.

Reviewers abroad, mostly driving the 47 kWh car, like the space and dislike the driver aids:

• CarExpert (Australia) rated it "Good": practical and efficient, with a sub-par ride.
• Chasing Cars (Australia) gave it 7/10 for brilliant packaging and faulted its lifeless steering.

Here it will meet the BYD Atto 2, GAC Aion UT, Chery Q and JMEV EV3.

Geely EX5: The Claim That Needs Narrowing

The EX5 is a mid-size electric SUV, sold in China as the Geely Galaxy E5 and in Malaysia as the Proton e.MAS 7. Sheikh called it "the number one selling C-class SUV" in Geely's key markets, naming Australia, South America and the UAE.

Geely's own published claims are narrower. It says the EX5 led China's pure-electric SUVs around RMB 150,000 in 2025 and topped Brazil's pure-electric C-segment SUV sales for four months running, in its 2025 sales release. We found no sales data that supports the claim for Australia or the UAE, so treat it as Bestway's claim.

Geely Pakistan quotes 0–100 km/h in 7.1 seconds, 30–80% charging in 20 minutes and "up to 490 km" of WLTP range. We couldn't match that range to any version Geely sells in the markets we checked. Abroad, the EX5 comes with a 60.22 kWh battery or a 68.39 kWh one, rated at up to 475 km on the WLTP cycle in Australia. Either battery is above the 50 kWh line that matters for tax, as we explain below.

Reviews abroad are lukewarm:

• CarExpert (Australia) rated the 68 kWh car "Good" for its price and build, with a soft ride and intrusive driver aids.
• Top Gear (UK) gave it 5/10: lots of space for the money, but dead steering and a lack of physical buttons.

Its rivals here include the BYD Atto 3 and the Deepal S07.

Geely Starray: EM-R or EM-i?

The Starray is a mid-size SUV, sold in China as the Geely Galaxy Starship 7. Sheikh introduced it as the "Starray EM-R" and called it "a record holder for the most fuel-efficient vehicle in its class". Bestway's launch statement describes it as a range extender.

The Starray EM-i, as sold in Australia. Image: Geely

The record is real, but it belongs to a different version. Guinness World Records lists the lowest fuel consumption by a plug-in hybrid production SUV on the Sydney–Melbourne coastal drive: 3.83 litres per 100 km over 1,056 km, in December 2025. The car was a Starray EM-i with the larger 29.8 kWh battery, Geely says. The title covers one route and one class of car.

The two versions work differently:

• EM-i is a plug-in hybrid, as Geely UK classes it. Its 1.5-litre engine mainly charges the battery, but at times drives the front wheels directly, MotoringNZ found.
• EM-R is a range extender. The same engine only generates electricity, and the electric motor alone drives the wheels. It made its debut in Thailand in August 2026, as paultan.org reported, with an 18.4 kWh battery rated at about 105 km of electric range on the NEDC cycle.

Which one Pakistan gets isn't settled. Sheikh and the launch statement say EM-R. Bestway's July announcement named the EM-i. Geely Pakistan's website calls the car "Starray EM", and its figures, 0–100 km/h in 8.0 seconds and up to 1,000 km of combined range, match the EM-i as sold in Australia and Indonesia.

This matters beyond the name. The draft Auto Policy 2026–31 would charge range extenders 6% sales tax and plug-in hybrids 9%, as we explain in Auto Policy 2026-31: PM Approves Draft, Not Law Yet. Both versions clear the 50 km of electric range the NEV Policy asks of a plug-in car.

Every review we found is of the EM-i. CarExpert rated it "Good" for its value and real-world efficiency, using mid-to-high 5 L/100 km with the battery empty. Chasing Cars gave it 7/10, praising the price and space and faulting a noisy engine. Its rivals here include the Deepal S05, the Forthing Friday REEV and the BYD Sealion 6.

The Three Geely Cars at a Glance

These are Geely Pakistan's own figures, taken from its website on 26 October. They aren't a confirmed Pakistan specification.

Want to see how one would handle your own trip? Pick the car in the PakNEV route planner.

Geely's Brands: Zeekr, Volvo, Lotus and More

Li Shufu founded Geely in 1986. Its private parent, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, sold 4.12 million vehicles in 2025, 56% of them electric or plug-in, it says. The listed carmaker, Geely Automobile Holdings, accounted for 3.02 million of them. Sheikh listed the wider family on stage, and it runs from city cars to Swedish SUVs and British sports cars.

Beyond those, Li Shufu holds 9.69% of Mercedes-Benz Group, Geely holds 14% of Aston Martin, and Geely owns the engine maker Horse Powertrain with Renault and Aramco, according to Geely Auto's annual report.

Some of these brands are already here, but not through Bestway. Capital Smart Motors sells Zeekr, with the X, 7X and 009, and the Riddara RD6 electric pickup, which we covered at New Wheels Expo. Proton came through Al-Haj. Bestway's July announcement names it sole distributor of "Geely Auto Group products", the arm that also runs Zeekr and Lynk & Co, yet so far it has launched only Geely-branded cars, and it hasn't said whether any other group brand will follow.

Geely Price in Pakistan: What We Still Don't Know

• Prices, the booking amount and dates. In September, Bestway was reported as aiming to open bookings before the end of 2026, in The Express Tribune.
• Battery sizes. These affect price as much as anything. Today, an imported electric car pays 12.5% sales tax and a locally assembled one 1%, but only with a battery of 50 kWh or less, under the Sales Tax Act. The EX2 sits under that line and the EX5 over it on every battery Geely sells abroad.

The PakNEV Take: The Right Partner, Now Show Us the Price

Bestway brings what most new brands in Pakistan lack on day one: a working plant, deep pockets, a bank in the family to finance the cars and a plan for its own chargers. The EX2 is also proven at a scale few cars anywhere match, and its claims are the ones that stood up best.

The rest of the evening's claims needed care. The EX5's sales crown is unproven outside Brazil, and the Starray's world record belongs to a sibling with a different powertrain. None of that makes them bad cars. Reviewers abroad call all three roomy and good value, with ride and driver-assistance niggles. What decides Geely's success here is price. At New Wheels Expo, the electric cars visitors opened most cost between 50 lakh and 1 crore, and that is where the EX2 has to land. We'll update this article when Bestway publishes prices and specifications, and test the cars when we can.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will Geely launch in Pakistan?

Bestway unveiled Geely in Pakistan on 24 October 2026, with the EX2, EX5 and Starray. Prices and booking dates haven't been announced. Bestway was reported in September as aiming to open bookings before the end of 2026.

What is the Geely EX2 price in Pakistan?

Not announced yet, and neither are the EX5 and Starray prices. Bestway says they will come through its official channels. We'll add them to each car's page as soon as they are published.

Who sells Geely cars in Pakistan?

Bestway Automotive (Private) Limited, part of Bestway Group, is Geely's sole authorised distributor. It plans eight dealerships in its first phase, starting in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Will Geely cars be assembled in Pakistan?

Yes, that is the plan. The first cars are imported fully built, and Bestway will assemble them later at the Port Qasim plant it bought from Al-Haj Automotive, with a capacity of 25,000 cars a year. It aims to start "within the next few months".

Is the Geely Starray a plug-in hybrid or a range extender?

Not confirmed. Bestway's launch statement calls it the Starray EM-R, a range extender, but its website's figures match the EM-i plug-in hybrid. The answer matters for tax under the draft auto policy.

Does Bestway sell Zeekr in Pakistan?

No. Zeekr belongs to the Geely group, but Capital Smart Motors sells it here, along with the Riddara RD6. Bestway has launched only Geely-branded cars so far.