Car Sales Plummet in the Month of July!

2016 has so far been a hopeful year for the future of Pakistan’s auto industry as new Civic’s launch, FAW’s plans for V2’s localized production and the news of Dewan Farooque Motors return as a local manufacturer has made headlines! The good news of the future aside, sales of four-wheelers in July 2016 have seen a noticeable drop of 12% from the same month last year.

According to Pakistan Automobile Manufacturers Association (PAMA), this July, only 13,932 units of cars, jeeps, vans and LCVs were sold which means a drop of nearly 2000 from June 2015 sales figure of 15,909 units. The main reason for this decrease in sales is the nonexistence of Taxi Scheme which has apparently led to a decline in sales of both Suzuki Bolan and Suzuki Ravi. Bolan and Ravi’s sales figures show a steep decrease as Suzuki Bolan shows a whopping drop of 53.5%. Likewise, sales of Suzuki Ravi fell by 51%.

According to Topline Securities analyst Hamza Raza, by excluding sales of Ravi and Bolan, the sales have risen by 36%. In addition to the absence of Taxi Scheme this year, Eid in the month of July this year led to a decrease in working days further denting sales. Hamza Raza, like us at PakWheels, is hopeful regarding the automobile industry of Pakistan as he added,

“We expect car sales to remain robust in fiscal year 2016-17 (FY17) – despite the absence of the Taxi Scheme – since Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) would be launching a new model – Celerio (1,000cc category) – in the latter half of this year and Indus Motors (INDU) would continue to see strong demand due to its Corolla,” and said,
“We believe that Honda City is the main contributor to HCAR’s sales growth; additionally, volumes of the new model of Honda Civic are expected to pick up considering demand from pre-booking and response at launch. Civic’s launch attracted attention from prospective buyers with more interest towards the 1.5L Turbo variant.”