Local car sales – including light commercial vehicles (LCVs), vans and jeeps – stood at 12,258 units in August 2014, up 76% compared to July 2014’s sales of 6,948 and up 10% compared to sales of 11,096 units in August 2013.
However, during the first two months of fiscal year 2015 (FY15), sales went down 11% to 19,206 units compared to 21,675 in the same period last year, mainly due to significantly low volumes in July 2014.
The sales volumes were abnormally low in July 2014 because of early buying witnessed in June 2014. The phenomenon was due to the increase in advance motor vehicle tax and imposition of advance income tax on transfer of motor vehicle in Federal Budget FY15 that took effect from July.
Moreover, low trading activity due to Ramazan also hurt volumes in July 2014.
The new model factor
The surge in August sales was expected after launch of the new Toyota Corolla model by Indus Motor – the second largest carmaker with 21% share in Pakistan, Topline Securities reported on Thursday.
Among individual companies, sales of Pak Suzuki – the country’s largest carmakers with over 50% market share – increased to 6,510 units in August 2014, up 8.8% year-on-year (YoY) and 50.8% (3,202 units) month-on-month (MoM). During the two months of FY15, sales of Pak Suzuki declined by 7.3% YoY to 10,827 units compared to 11,679 units last year.
The company witnessed a significant increase in the sale of Suzuki Mehran — 58% MoM to clock in at 2,330 units in August 2014 against 1,475 units in July 2014. Suzuki Ravi’s unit sales improved 526 units to 1,114 units in August 2014. The increase was primarily due to low trading activity in July 2014 due to Ramazan and extended Eid holidays.
Indus Motor sold 4,065 units in August 2014, posting a massive increase of 267.5% from 1,106 units in July 2014. However, sales declined by 11% in the combined sales in first two months of FY15. The major increase was witnessed in the company’s flagship Corolla model, which sold 3,515 units in August 2014 after just 673 units in the previous month, while Toyota Hilux’s sales also improved to 475 units compared to 363 units in July 2014.
Meanwhile, Honda sold 1,634 units in August 2014, up 8.8% compared to 1,505 units in July 2014.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2014.
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