Touching the highest-ever figure in two and a half years, local car sales (including light commercial vehicles, vans and jeeps) in January 2015 hit 17,709 units, up by a significant 27% compared to 13,910 units in the same month last year.
During the first seven months (Jul-Jan) of fiscal year 2015, sales were up 13% to 85,135 units compared to 75,162 units in the same period last year, led by the new model of Toyota Corolla and demand under the Punjab Taxi Scheme.
Amongst individual companies, sales of Pak Suzuki – the largest carmaker in Pakistan –increased by 13% YoY to 7,987 units in January 2015. Volumes also improved by 29% month-on-month. In Jul-Jan of fiscal year 2015, sales of Pak Suzuki rose by 2% to 43,643 units versus 42,581 units in the same period of last year.
The company witnessed improvement of 37% YoY in Suzuki Mehran sales and sold 3,467 units in January 2015 against 2,531 units in January 2014.
However, Ravi showed a slight improvement of 1% month-on-month to 1,285 units while sales of Bolan remained stable month-on-month.
A robust increase in tractor sales was also observed after the reduction in general sales tax (GST) in the last budget. In the first seven months, tractor sales surged by 25% to 24,397 units compared to 19,564 units in the corresponding period of last year.
Millat Tractors led the tractor segment in volumes by selling 14,965 units, up 28% year-on-year (YoY), followed by Al-Ghazi Tractors with 9,023 units, up 25%.
Posting highest-ever monthly sales, Indus Motor – the makers of Toyota Corolla – sold 6,415 units in January 2015, up 61% compared to 3,992 units in the same period of last year.
On month-on-month basis, Indus Motor sales increased by 57% from 4,100 units in December 2014. During seven months, sales increased by 53% to 29,301 units.
Toyota Corolla posted an increase of 51% month-on-month to 5,864 units compared to 3,882 units in December 2014. “We attribute this increase to the sale of Corolla’s new model coupled with the New Year registration phenomenon.”
On a yearly basis, Corolla sales surged significantly by 63% compared to 3,611 units in the same month last year.
Honda Atlas Cars has posted highest-ever monthly sales in nine years. It sold 3,221 units in January 2015 compared to 2,600 units in the same month last year, up 24% YoY.