KARACHI, Sept 11: Sales of locally produced cars fell by 28.2 per cent to 18,325 units in July-August 2012 as compared to 25,553 units in the same period of last fiscal year.
The main factors responsible for the drop in sales were zero production of Suzuki Alto and Daihatsu Cuore in the last two months.
Other reasons included reduced working hours during Ramazan in July-August followed by Eidul Fitr holidays and completion of Taxi Scheme under which 20,000 units of Suzuki Bolan and Mehran were handed over to the Punjab government.
Huge influx of used cars also gave a choice to buyers to purchase five-year-old used cars.
However, due to possible change in model, Honda Atlas did not produce a single unit of Honda Civic in August 2012 as compared to 490 units in July 2012.
Sales of Honda Civic dropped to 707 units in July-August 2012 as compared to 932 units.
In contrast, people purchased 2,184 units of Honda City in the last two months as compared to 1,475 units in July-August 2011.
According to figures released by Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) on Tuesday, Toyota Corolla sales plunged to 5,264 units in July-August 2011-2012 as compared to 7,362 units in the corresponding period of last year.
A senior official of the Indus Motor Company (IMC) in the last week of July had claimed that the company would produce 1,000 less cars and light commercial vehicle (LCV) as it was observing non-production days (NPDs) from July 27 to Aug 7 owing to low working hours in Ramazan and buyers’ interest in used car imports.
However, the IMC recorded a nominal production decline and assembled 2,627 units of Corolla in August 2012 as compared to 2,914 units in July 2012.
Sale of Corolla improved in August 2012 to 2,800 units as compared to 2,464 units in July 2012.
Toyota Hilux production in August 2012 fell to 248 units as compared to 449 units in July 2012 but Hilux production in July-August 2012 slightly improved to 697 as compared to 691 units.
Sale of Hilux rose to 846 units in July-August 2012 as compared to 627 units in the corresponding period of last year.
The IMC launched partial payment scheme on all its Toyota variants from July 31 which might have lured buyers.
Suzuki Mehran sales dropped to 4,832 units in July-August 2012 as compared to 5,515 units in the same period of 2011 while sales of Bolan and Cultus fell to 1,624 and 2,308 units as compared to 2,775 and 2,672 units.
Swift sales showed a positive growth to 1,292 units as compared to 1,274 units. Only 45 units of Liana were sold in July-August 2012 as compared to 127 units in same months of 2011.
Suzuki Ravi sales plunged to 1,516 units as compared to 3,357 units, while only 130 units of Sigma Defender were sold in July-August 2012 as compared to 143 units in the same period last year.
Sale of some selected two/three wheeler members of PAMA recorded a decline to 136,178 units in July-August 2012 as compared to 147,147 units in the same period of last fiscal year.
Sale of only Honda bikes somewhat went up to 103,184 units as compared to 102,196 units while Yamaha and Suzuki sales decreased to 11,255 and 2,809 units as compared to 16,585 and 3,722 units. A total of 1,567 units of Sazgar three wheelers were sold as compared to 2,381 units while Qingqi three-wheeler sales rose to 3,675 units from 3,613 units.
Hero, Ravi and Habib bike sales dropped to 5,168, 3,576 and 3,720 units as compared to 7,606, 4,784 and 5,295 units.