Sazgar opens three-wheeler assembly plant in the Philippines

Sazgar Engineering Works Limited, one of Pakistan's largest rickshaw manufacturers, has inaugurated a three-wheeler assembly plant in the Philippines, taking its manufacturing footprint into Southeast Asia for the first time.

The facility in Biñan City, Laguna province, is designed to assemble about 12,000 three-wheeled vehicles a year, covering both electric and internal combustion engine models, Business Recorder reported. The Associated Press of Pakistan, which also carried the inauguration, identified the location as Biñan City in Laguna.

Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr inaugurated the plant and said the investment reflected Manila's aim of attracting companies that manufacture locally rather than only sell into the domestic market. "That is the kind of investment that we want, not just companies that sell to the Filipinos but companies that make things with the Filipinos," Marcos said, according to Business Recorder.

The president said the plant would support the country's manufacturing sector and its shift towards cleaner transport, and would create employment for Filipino workers as well as business for local suppliers, including firms in battery-related components, rubber and lubricants. He said the plant's electric three-wheelers are designed to travel between 100 and 210 kilometres on a single charge, enough in his account to cover a full day of trips without petrol.

Sazgar was set up in Pakistan as a private limited company in 1991 and became a public limited company in 1994. It manufactures and sells automobiles, automotive parts and accessories, and household electronic appliances, and runs its production plants in Lahore. Its product line includes auto rickshaws, tractor wheel rims and home appliances.

The company already exports three-wheelers. Business Recorder reported that it has shipped to Japan, Ethiopia, Qatar, Dubai, Mauritania and Afghanistan, and that its 2024 exports went to Japan, Liberia, Tanzania and Afghanistan. In September 2025 it announced plans to enter new export markets, naming the Philippines, Mexico and Afghanistan as targets in a strategy to diversify revenue.

The Philippine plant is the company's first announced assembly operation outside Pakistan. Neither Sazgar nor the Philippine government released the size of the investment, the planned start date for production or the number of people the plant will employ; those details were not in the reports carried by Business Recorder and APP.