The luxury car segment is about to get more luxurious. A variety of new offerings in the sedan and SUV categories are planned which could potentially increase the overall market size but most likely, bring more sedan users to the SUV category, spreading out the market share—divide and conquer style.
British MG motors for instance has already received a phenomenal 1500 orders for its model HS which it is planning to import and sell at a reasonably affordable price (read more: “(O)MG, it’s an SUV”, Nov 24, 2020). To list other new models in the SUV/jeep category, Regal Automobiles is launching a fairly affordable compact SUV, Glory 580 next week which comes from the Chinese carmaker Dongfeng Sokon (DFSK).
Beginning of next month, Kia will start booking for its seven-seater crossover SUV, Kia Sorento, all locally assembled, after the massive success of its compact SUV Sportage. Sorento is bigger than Sportage, but smaller than Fortuner or Prado which would fall in the sweet spot where little to no competition exists.
Old time assembler, Indus Motors will start CBU import of front-wheel-drive Toyota Corolla Cross which, like a two-flavored ice-cream, would give a Corolla to an SUV user; or something close to it. Master Motors will be bringing a new SUV model from Chinese Changan’s fleet after a fairly good launch for its minivan Karvaan. Malaysian automotive company Proton in collaboration with Al-Haj (which is also the local partner for Chinese FAW vehicles) is about to launch a crossover SUV X70 likely to compete with Sportage and Hyundai’s Tucson.
Curiously, there aren’t as many as hatchback or sedan launches as there are SUVs which means new and old companies are banking on a substantial growth in this emerging market, hoping to substitute refurbished imports to start with and introduce choices for traditional SUV users and new converts. As a major importer of Japanese SUVs, the Pakistani market is observing a flurry of activity from European, Korean, Chinese and Malaysian auto companies which is a departure from the norm, and will add to the variety of vehicles currently sold in the market.
Though data on type of vehicles available/used/run in the country is pretty patchy with some of the most confusing and indecipherable data sets available on the Pakistan Economic Survey, some numbers can be telling. Over the past two decades, jeeps on the road of the country have continuously grown. There are 147,000 jeeps on the roads of Pakistan today against 18,000 two decades ago—a CAGR growth of 12 percent. This is against the motorcar growth of 8 percent during this period. The jeep market is growing faster—whether these vehicles are imported or locally assembled, more consumers are moving to that segment than ever before.