Kyrgyzstan plans to launch electric vehicle production and eventually gradually replace cars with gasoline and diesel engines with electric vehicles. President Sadyr Japarov said this during a meeting with residents of Tash-Kumyr and Kara-Kul in Jalal-Abad region.

During the meeting, a resident of Tash-Kumyr asked the head of state to provide the town with five or six electric buses. He said public transport in the town was outdated, with some buses already 20–30 years old.

The resident noted that operating older vehicles was costly due to fuel prices and suggested a gradual transition to electric transport.

In response, Sadyr Japarov said a plant for manufacturing electric vehicles was being built in Kyrgyzstan. The facility is expected to begin operations by the end of this year or in March–April next year.

“We will start operating by the end of the year. If that does not work out, we will launch in March–April. Our own electric vehicles will start rolling out, from passenger cars to larger vehicles,” the president said.

He added that the plant would be capable of producing around 10,000 vehicles annually. In the longer term, the authorities plan to develop a state program to replace older vehicles with electric ones.

“We will switch all government vehicles to electric cars. This is a matter of the future. We will make the transition over 15–20 years,” Japarov said.

In late summer, it was reported that a facility for assembling electric vehicles under the national BARS brand was being launched. The project is being implemented on a 15-hectare site and is expected to create 100 jobs.

However, the Ministry of Economy did not specify who initiated the project or how much it would cost to launch production.