KARACHI –Pakistan passenger vehicle sales remained in the fast lane in February 2021 despite pressures on the supply chain due to Covid-19.
According to the industry body (Pama) car sales increased by 31% in February 2021 compared to the same period last year. This happened due to low markups and start-of-year buying, the latest data showed on Thursday.
Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association further said that passenger car sales grew to 13,570 units in February 2021 from 10,345 units sold in February 2020.
However, February sales decreased by 6.7% on a month-on-month comparison as 14,543 units were sold in January.
The body also noted that the sale of jeeps, tractors, pickups, three-wheelers, and motorcycles witnessed a significant increase.
The data showed that cumulative sales in the first eight months (July-February) of the ongoing fiscal year stood at 95,139 units, seeing an increase of 20%. In the same period of the last fiscal year, car sales stood at 79,534.
In February, sales of 1300cc and above cars increased by 6.0% to 6,114 units, compared with 5,769 units sold in the same month a year back.
According to The News newspaper, the improvement can be attributed to the increased sales of Toyota Yaris (2,566 units).
The sales of Indus Motor’s popular Toyota Corolla continued on a downward trend by declining 68% to 1,177 units against 3,715 units sold in February 2020, the newspaper report added.
The sale of Honda Civic and City increased by 17% to 2,192 from 1,868 units in the same period of 2020. Suzuki Swift sales dropped to 179 cars from 186 cars sold last year.
Similarly, sales of 1,000cc cars, Suzuki Cultus and Suzuki WagonR, marginally increased to 2,298 units against 2,234 in the corresponding period.
Likewise, under 800cc car sales surged 120% to 5,158 units in February against 2,342 units in the same month of 2020, led by Suzuki Alto, selling 4,245 units compared to 1,620 in February last.
Moreover, sales of buses and trucks dropped to 329 units in February from 402 in the same period a year earlier.
Sales of jeeps increased to 119% to 1,058 units from 484 units during the same month last year as Toyota Fortuner sales grew 30% to 275 units from 211 and Hyundai Tucson sales rose to 546 units.
