BUSINESS: The automobile industry of Pakistan is facing challenges as sales of cars, vans, pickups, and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) experienced a 73% year-on-year decline in February, reaching a monthly sales figure of only 5,762 units.
This is the lowest sales number recorded since May 2020 when sales were at 4,500 units. During the first eight months of the fiscal year, overall auto sales saw a decline of 44%, dropping from 178,250 units in the same period of FY22 to 100,057 units.
Despite this, Hyundai Nishat’s Tucson had a remarkable performance, selling 708 units in February, up from 620 units the previous month. Tucson sales increased by 60% to 3,558 units in 8MFY23 from 2,230 units in 8MFY22.
While Elantra and Sonata sales experienced a surge in February to 243 and 197 units respectively, compared to 173 and 191 units in January, their demand decreased by 12% and 43% in 8MFY23, with sales figures of 1,695 and 939 units, compared to 1,929 and 1,638 units in 8MFY22.
Sales of Hyundai Porter were down by 21% in February, with 123 units sold, while sales figures for 8MFY23 fell by 27% to 846 units.
Compared to its competitors, Pak Suzuki Motor Company Ltd (PSMCL) fared poorly with only 978 units sold in February, a 67% decrease from January’s sales of 2,945 units.
Suzuki’s total vehicle sales in the first eight months of FY23 were 52,294 units, a decline of 45%. Only Suzuki Swift managed to show positive sales figures with 7,707 units sold in 8MFY23 as opposed to 497 units in the same period last year.
In contrast, Cultus, WagonR, Alto, Bolan, and Ravi had sales of 5,758, 4,533, 28,202, 3,083, and 3,011 units, respectively, during July-Feb FY23, representing a 67%, 69%, 35%, 63%, and 70% decrease compared to 8MFY22.
Toyota Corolla and Yaris sales also decreased by 61% in 8MFY23 to 14,875 units from 38,300 in 8MFY22, while Fortuner and Hilux sales decreased by 21% to 8,805 units from 11,119 units in 8MFY22.
Honda Civic/City sales fell by 50% to 11,770 units in the first eight months of FY23 from 23,552 in 8MFY22.
Although Honda BR-V sales declined by 64% to 392 units in February from 1,084 units in January, customers bought 31% more BR-V vehicles in 8MFY23, reaching 3,673 units, compared to 2,807 units in 8MFY22.
