Automotive industry in Pakistan

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The Automotive industry has been an active and growing field in Pakistan for a long time, however not as much established to figure in the prominent list of the top automotive industries. Despite significant production volumes, transfer of technology and localization of vehicle components remains low. Most cars in the country have dual fuel options and run on CNG which is more affordable and cheaper than petrol in the country.

According to Ministry of Industries Pakistan produced its first vehicle in 1953, at the National Motors Limited, established in Karachi to assemble Bedford Trucks. Subsequently buses, light trucks and cars were assembled in the same plant. The industry was highly regulated until the early 1990’s. After deregulation major Japanese manufacturers entered in the market thereby creating some competition in this sector. Assemblers of HINO Trucks, Suzuki Cars (1984), Mazda Trucks, Toyota (1993) and Honda (1994) in particular, entered once deregulation was introduced. Assembly of Daihatsu and Hyundai cars (1999) and various brands of LCVs and range of mini-trucks commenced recently.

From 1953 to 2011 the journey of auto industry has been rough, tough and sometime very smooth. Car industry saw boom in 2006-2007 when sales touched record peak of 180,834 thanks to rising car financing up to 70-80 per cent by banks due to low interest rates and rising rural buying. Since then the industry has been surviving hard to reach the same sales level amid high interest rates and Yen appreciation against the rupee but high farm income is giving much support to car sales. Good crops this year will keep the car sales brisk despite increase in prices.

The car industry has invested over Rs 20 billion in the last four to five years to meet growing demand. The direct employment in car industry hovers between 5,500-6,000 persons.Motorcycle production hit the country’s record level of over 1.5 million units in 2010-2011 by the effort of Pervaiz Musharraf Government’s decision that opened bike market to low cost Chinese bikes. Auto sector now employs 192,000 people directly and around 1.2 million indirectly and has Rs 98 billion of investments and contributes Rs 63 billion as indirect tax in the national exchequer.

Auto Sector remains the second largest payer of indirect taxes after the Petroleum Sector. In Pakistan's context there are 10 cars in 1,000 persons which is one of the lowest in the emerging economies which itself speaks of high potential of growth in the auto sector and more so in the car production. Rising per capita income with changing demographic distribution and an anticipated influx of 30 to 40 million young people in the economically active workforce in the next few years provides a stimulus to the industry to expand and grow. (Source AUTOMARK Magazine)

Currently produced vehicles

List of currently assembled passenger vehicles (incomplete):

• Toyota Corolla
• Honda Civic (The international current generation Honda Civic with a 1.8 liter iVTEC engine)
• Honda City (The international current generation Honda City with a 1.3 litre iVTEC engine)
• Toyota Corolla (The international current generation Toyota Corolla with a 1.3 VVT or 1.6 liter Dual-VVT engine)
• Suzuki Swift (A variant of the 2004-2010 international Suzuki Swift)
• Suzuki Mehran (A very basic version of the Suzuki Alto CA71, with a 796 cc engine. As of 2011, the car still has a carburetor based engine.)
• Suzuki Alto (The Suzuki Alto HA12 chassis fitted with a 1982-1984 Suzuki SJ410 970 cc engine. As of 2010, the Paksuzuki Alto still has a carburetor based engine.)
• Suzuki Cultus (A basic version of globally retired Suzuki Cultus Generation 2 with a 993 cc engine.)
• Suzuki Ravi (Pick-up version of the Suzuki Super Carry with a late 1970s era carburetor based 796 cc engine.)
• Suzuki Bolan(Van version of the Suzuki Super Carry with a late 1970s era carburetor based 796 cc engine.)
• Suzuki Liana (The Suzuki liana sedan with 1.3 litre engines with manual transmission only. Since 2007, Pakistan is the only place left where the Liana is being made and sold.)
• Nissan Sunny
• Diahatsu Cuore
• Land Rover Defender

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