According to the sales stats published by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) for the month of December 2019, car sales witnessed a decline of 43% while motorbike sales plunged by 12% in the first half of the ongoing fiscal year 2019-20.
The local auto sector of Pakistan had a poor run in 2019 particularly in the second half of the year. The beginning of the fiscal year 2019-20 witnessed the imposition of various additional taxes and duties by the government such as Federal Excise Duty (FED). With a sharp depreciation of Pakistani Rupee against the US dollar, the car prices went up massively thus resulting in a considerable decrease in car sales. The sales of most of the cars went down by more than 50% in the first half of FY 2019-20 and as a result, most of the major automakers in the country decided to halt their production for a specified number of days each month. Honda Atlas and Toyota Indus, in particular, shut down their production plants for a longer period of time due to low demand in the market. The cut down in production was linked to reducing the expenses of the manufacturing facility. Nonetheless, prices continued the upward trend even after Rupee stabilized and started to gain value against the US dollar. For the past four months or so, Rupee has gone up by good margin yet the auto manufacturers have still increased the prices of their cars for unknown reasons. Instead of offering discounts and promotions in such circumstances, automakers stuck with their policy of hiking prices every month. There is currently no active regulatory body of the government to monitor such activities which have resulted in the exploitation of the end consumers.
With the beginning of New Year, the first half of FY 2019-20 also completed with disappointing sales figures from all the auto players in the market. The local market is currently dominated by three Japanese auto giants i.e. Pak Suzuki, Toyota Indus, and Honda Atlas. None of them could stamp their authority in the period under review apart from one model from Pak Suzuki i.e. 660 cc Alto. However, in the passenger cars of 1300 cc and above, Toyota Corolla remained the highest-selling car in the local sector. Toyota Indus sold only 11,742 units of Corolla in the July to December 2019 period, down by nearly 58% as compared to its corresponding period last year when the company sold 27,950 units. Honda Atlas managed to sell 6919 units of Civic and City combined in the first half of FY 2019-20 which shows a decline of more than 68%. The automaker sold 21,784 units of both cars combined in the same period last year. Pak Suzuki offers Swift in this category that also suffered a massive blow of nearly 55% drop in its sales to only 1136 units in the specified period.
Note here that these cars were subjected to a 5% FED by the government that added to the price of the cars.
The 1000 cc segment of cars is a popular category of hatchbacks in Pakistan yet again dominated by Pak Suzuki. However, KIA Picanto has now entered the local sector to compete with Cultus and Wagon R. Pak Suzuki suffered a major setback to its sales of Wagon R in 2019 that was earlier sold as a top consumer’s choice. The automaker could only sell 4546 units of Wagon R in six months of the ongoing fiscal year that records a decline of nearly 72% in comparison to 16,081 units in the same period last year. It was primarily due to its price that has gone up significantly and the introduction of Alto in the local market at a comparatively low price bracket. On the other hand, Suzuki Cultus also faced a reduction in sales by more than 38% in this period with just 6609 units being sold. Surprisingly, it performed better than Wagon R in the local market in the period under review. All these cars were subjected to 2.5% FED by the government.
In the sales stats below 1000 cc engine capacity, the only highlight is the Pak Suzuki’s 660 cc Alto. The company has sold 23,658 units of the entry-level hatchback in the past six months that also drives the overall sales of the automaker in the country. The other vehicle in this segment is Suzuki Bolan that witnessed a drop of nearly 66% in this period.
The overall passenger car sales in the local sector plunged by as much as 43.19% in the first half of the fiscal year 2019-20. In this period, 59,097 units of cars were sold as compared to 104,038 units last year.
Suzuki Alto declared as the top-selling car of 2019:
In just 7 months of its launch, Suzuki Alto became the top-selling car of the year leaving behind Toyota Corolla that remained in production throughout 2019. The entry-level hatchback was launched back in June 2019 and ever since its sales have been the highlight of the auto industry. The company sold 23,658 units of Alto in the six months of the ongoing fiscal year which is more than any other car during the whole last year. Suzuki Mehran was out of production line since the start of FY 2019-20 so the units available in the inventories just made up to 1697 units in this period. Apart from it, Suzuki Wagon R has seen the highest downfall in sales by nearly 72% followed by Bolan with 66%. Suzuki Cultus remained the least affected model in this economic crisis for Pak Suzuki. The overall sales of the auto player went down by more than 29% in this specified period. Pak Suzuki recently decided to close its production on all Mondays during January 2020. The complete stats are as under:
Toyota Indus sales reduced by more than half:
Toyota Corolla, despite being the second-highest selling model in this period, the overall sales of the company plunged by more than 56%. The automaker sold 11,742 units of Corolla which is still nearly 58% less than those sold in the same period last year. On the other hand, only 552 units of its compact SUV Fortuner were sold as compared to 1253 units last year, down by nearly 56%. Toyota Indus sold 1881 units of its pick-up Hilux, 45% less than its corresponding period last year. It is worth mentioning here that the company is reportedly all set to discontinue the 1.3L variants of Corolla soon and will replace it with the all-new Yaris. The company is still operating its plant on a single shift i.e. 50% of its production capacity.
Honda Atlas into nose-dive:
The only major automaker in the local industry that is yet to show any signs of recovery is Honda Atlas. It observed as many as 107 non-production days (NPDs) during the first half of FY 2019-20. However, the company announced that it will not shut down its plant for a single day during January 2020. The overall sales of HACPL dropped by 66.44% in the July-December 2019 period which was largely contributed by the sales of its Civic and City. The combined stats of both cars reveal that the company sold only 6919 units as compared to 21,784 units in the same period last year, down by more than 68%. The current generation of Honda City is into its 11th year of production with no signs of change in model soon. In the same period, Civic has upgraded from Reborn to Rebirth and now Civic X is being produced in the local market. On the other hand, the company sold 1227 units of BR-V in the first half of FY 2019-20 as compared to 2494 units last year.
Trucks & Buses:
The sales of trucks also went down by 47.56% in the first half of the fiscal year 2019-20. In the same period, only 373 buses were sold as compared to 546 units last year, down by 31.68%. The overall sales declined by more than 45% in this economic contraction period. The individual sales stats of both trucks and buses are given in the table below:
LCVs, Vans & Jeeps sales:
In this segment of vehicles, Honda Atlas sold more units BR-V as compared to Toyota Fortuner. As many as 1227 units of Honda BR-V were sold in H1 of FY 2019-20 whereas Toyota Indus could only sell 552 units of Fortuner. Nonetheless, both the compact SUVs suffered more than 50% plunge in their respective sales. The overall sales were also down by more than 52% in the period under review.
D-Max breaks its own record of low sales:
The highlight of pick-up sales has been the record-breaking lowest sales of D-Max during the last month. In December 2019, only 14 units of Isuzu D-Max were sold which is less than its own record of 15 units set in the previous month. Isuzu has just sold 264 units of D-Max in the first six months of FY 2019-20. On the other hand, the sales of JAC also remained on the lower side with just 227 units in the period under review. Despite selling 4262 units, Suzuki Ravi’s sales still observed a decline of nearly 52%. Toyota Hilux witnessed a plunge by more than 45% in its sales as the company sold 1881 units.
Tractor sales lead by Massey Ferguson:
Massey Ferguson is a popular brand of tractor production in Pakistan. The company did sell 9228 units of its tractors in this period yet it witnessed a decline of nearly 43%. It shows the company’s selling power in the local sector. It was followed by Fiat with 5881 units as compared to 8155 units in the same period last year. It observed a drop of approximately 28% in its sales whereas the sales of Orient IMT tractors went down by almost 50% in this period. The overall sales were down by 38% in H1 of FY 2019-20.
Motorcycles & 3-wheelers:
The motorbike industry has gone through a mixed period in the past year. Atlas Honda, being the top motorbike manufacturer in the country leads the market share by a considerable margin. The company did witness a decline in its sales during the half of the fiscal year by 5.28% but it hasn’t been that bad year for Atlas Honda. Under such circumstances of increasing prices of automotive products, the company has remained good in sales numbers. It sold 515,173 units in this period as compared to 543,894 units in the same period last year. It was followed by United motorbikes with 169,578 units being sold in July-December 2019 period. Its sales declined by nearly 17% while that of Road Prince went down by 30%. As many as 63,612 motorbikes of Road Prince were sold in this period. The big names in the motorbike industry including Suzuki and Yamaha also suffered a marginal loss. The sales of Suzuki motorbikes went down by 8.42% whereas Yamaha nearly maintained its sales number. Yamaha Pakistan sold 12,913 units in the period under review as compared to 12,947 units in the same period last year, down by just 0.26%. The overall sales of motorbikes and 3-wheelers dropped by 12% in the initial six months of the current fiscal year 2019-20.
The sales stats of PAMA for the completed half fiscal year suggest that the highest selling car in the country was Suzuki Alto with a whopping 23,658 units. The second place was held by Toyota Corolla with 11,742 units followed by Honda Civic and City with 6919 units in the third place. The complete list of top 10 selling vehicles in the local sector during this period is as under:
Will the fortune of the auto industry turn around with the change of year or will it remain the same for the rest of the fiscal year? Share your opinion in the comments space below and stay tuned to PakWheels for more statistical updates on the automobile sector.
Recommended for you: Toyota Land Cruiser to finally enter its next-generation model?
There is no such model named honda civic and city in top 10 selling vehicles, please get figures for both cars separately.