The Pakistan Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) is expected to announce a price hike of around Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 per unit for its range of motorcycles on Monday (tomorrow), due to gradually rising demand, market sources said on Saturday.
The range of motorcycles includes Raider 110, Sprinter SD and Sprinter ECO with 110cc capacity each, and GS-150 with 150cc engine capacity.
Taking advantage of the rising trust of people on Suzuki motorcycles, the management of PSMC has planned to increase the prices and it would be applicable from April 1, said the sources.
Market sources told Daily Times that the Chinese brand motorcycles were still in demand due to less prices as compared to international brands but the Chinese motorcycles has been losing their popularity in terms of durability because quality was being compromised by makers to maintain low price tags.
Consequently, people are switching towards other brands, which are comparatively expensive as compared with Chinese brand motorcycles, but reliable in terms of quality and performance. The possible price hike will be the first price hike announced by a local manufacturer during the current year, he added.
Currently, Raider 110 is available in the local market for Rs 85,400, Sprinter STD for Rs 80,400, Sprinter ECO for Rs 77,400 and GS-150 for Rs 101,500, according to the PSMC?s official website price list.
After the upward revision in prices, the new rates are expected to be Raider 110 Rs 87,400 to Rs 88,400, Sprinter STD Rs 82,400 to Rs 83,400, Sprinter ECO Rs 79,400 to Rs 80,400, and GS-150 Rs 103,500 to Rs 104,500.
Moreover, data available on the website of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) showed that demand of Suzuki two wheelers has been steadily increasing for the last six months as sale of Suzuki two wheelers witnessed a regular upward trend since October 2012.
In December 2012 sales of Suzuki motorcycles were 1,521 units and in January of this year it went up to 1,600 units. February 2013 also witnessed slight increase in sales of the motorcycles of PSMC by selling of 1,735 units.
Though PSMC is not a famous brand in the motorcycle market but improvisation in quality and different marketing schemes such as zero mark-up instalment facility is helping in making this brand popularity among the masses, sources further added.
According to the indicators of PAMA, cumulative sales of Suzuki two wheelers stood at 11,536 units during the period of July 2011 to February 2013. By this PSMC stands at seventh position among all brands of two wheelers available in the market.
PSMC is way behind from the market leader Honda in the sales of two wheelers as Honda stands first with the sales of 421,529 units out of 546,636 total sold units during the said period.
Despite several attempts, PSMC spokesperson Shafiq Shaikh was not available for comments.
