We have been talking about how Pakistan’s auto sector is booming lately, how the sales are on a rise, and how new potential automakers are about to burst throw the door in our local auto manufacturing scene. But the truth is, we are far behind in terms of global factor. And comparing it to India and its auto sector, we are years away. Recently a report appeared in India’ media saying that India’s car exports alone are four times more than Pakistan’s local car manufacturing.
Also Read: One-Third Of Car Price In Pakistan Are Taxes!
To put it in numbers, India was able to sell as many as 2.3 million vehicles in the domestic market in 2014-15. On the other hand, Pakistan produced and sold only 1.5 lac vehicles. That is peanuts as compared to what India is rolling in. And the astonishing part is, that figure of 1.5 lac vehicles a year is also nothing as compared to what India exported that year. India car exports were as much as 5.74 lac units of passenger cars – 4 times more than what Pakistan made and sold in its domestic market.
The report suggested that one reason for such vast disparity could be the lack of purely Pakistani carmaker. Where India has its home-grown companies like TATA, Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, and Hero Group to name a few, we here in Pakistan have nothing but foreign carmakers producing sub-standard vehicles.
According to a WorldBank data of 2010, Pakistan has 18 cars per 1000 people. And interestingly, 2011 data shows India also has 18 cars by 1000. But India is massive in size and population. Also, India’s economy has been growing exponentially. Pakistan hasn’t seen much of smooth sailing, and we have only been able to finalize our auto policy not too long ago. But one thing is for sure, Pakistan needs to work on producing its own vehicles. It is paramount that we support our entrepreneurs.
A few other facts. According to estimates, even if India grows at current pace (which is rather low when compared to 2005-2012), India will be the second biggest market for cars in less than 10 years. And by the way, Hyundai is India’s biggest car exporter, not Maruti or any other company. Now every manufacturer including VW, Ford and GM is trying to mimic Hyundai’s strategy and make India their primary manufacturing base for small and medium-sized cars. It’s creating a large eco-system of very high quality suppliers as well. Many of them are now Tier-1 suppliers to big players like BMW, Audi etc.