When we talk automotive industry in Pakistan, the most prevailing ones that come to mind are primarily of Japanese and Korean origins. Statistics gathered from 2014 to 2018 concluded Pakistan’s automotive industry is one of the fastest growing industries in Pakistan. It experienced an astounding increase of 171% between the years as mentioned above.
In addition to holding a dominant position in the country’s prominent industries, the automotive sector makes up 3% of Pakistan’s GDP. Moreover, it is responsible for providing jobs to over 3.5 million people in 2018 alone. This number has increased exponentially over the past few years. Not only that, but this sector contributes around 30 billion Rupees, or 310 million US Dollars, to the national exchequer, in relation to taxes and duties.
As the 35th largest producer of automobiles, Pakistan’s automotive market might be the smallest in terms of the Asian market; however, it is the fastest growing among all. And 2018 marked the year when Pakistan produced the most automobiles, amounting to 342,575 units.
As it did in countless industries, COVID-19 had a vastly negating effect on the automobile sector. However, since transportation will always be a vital aspect of human life, the automobile industry soon recovered from the loss.
Despite the monumental capacities and commodious market, the Pakistani automobile industry has, the country is sadly lacking in creating its own car manufacturing brand. With such tremendous contributions in terms of monetary values, why is it that Pakistan does not have an indigenous brand?
History of Automotive Industry of Pakistan
The first ever vehicle produced in Pakistan were Vauxhall and Bedford trucks, in 1953, by the National Motors Plant in Karachi. It wasn’t long before the same plant was used to produce light trucks and buses.
Later that year, Ali Automobiles partnered with Ford Trucks to produce Ford Pickups and Ford Anglia. Although Anglia was a sedan, Ford Trucks still chose to build it due to the rising demand.
In 1962, a private company called Kandawala industries was the one who made Jeep Cj 5, CJ 6 and CJ 7 in Pakistan. Kandawala industries were soon renamed Naya Daur Motors not too long after.
It was a time when pickup trucks were in hot demand. Due to the growing economy, such utility vehicles were gradually becoming a necessity for every business. The reason for this revolves heavily around the transportation of produced goods to the consumers.
Hence, by 1980, Awami Motors started manufacturing Suzuki pickups, and Sindh Engineering began manufacturing Mazda Trucks.
In 1982, Suzuki Pakistan started producing its first batch of Suzuki cars in Pakistan. Gandhara Nissan began their production of Nissan Trucks in the year 1987. Then, in 1993, Indus Motors first started producing Toyota Corollas. It wasn’t too long after when its primary competitor, Honda Civic, came into the production lineup by the Honda Atlas company in Pakistan in 1994.
Prevalent Car Brands in Pakistan:
Until 2017, the only three companies that dominated the market, and were the only reliable options for the Pakistani population, were none other than Suzuki, Toyota and Honda. This is because companies had captured Pakistan’s automotive market and dug their roots deep into the country.
It is one of the reasons why people trust these brands so much. There is an 80% chance someone they know has one of their cars. It might not seem much, but for something as important as purchasing a vehicle, people tend to opt for the more reliable option, preferably one that they have seen being used around them.
Following that, the reliability in the minds of the people for these three brands was at its peak. As per stats, a prominent reason that prompted people to purchase from one of these brands was their after-sales service, maintenance, the approach of the service centres and availability of car parts.
Many more companies have started their production line in Pakistan recently. Some of the newly emerging companies in the automobile industry market of Pakistan include MG Motor, Hyundai and Changan. These companies are responsible for bringing luxury into ordinary people’s consideration. “Bank for the Buck” is what we see here, where these companies built seamless, high-end designs to target the upper middle class and challenge their rivals aggressively.
This wasn’t a tremendous change in Pakistan but was enough to break the domination of the big three in Pakistan, which held a monopoly in Pakistan’s automotive market.
Reasons for the Lack of Native Car Brands
As of yet, the only native company in Pakistan is United Auto Industries, a Lahore-based company founded in 1999. It manufactured motorbikes until recently when the company entered the automobile market. They first launched “United Bravo,” which was an 800cc car, in September 2018.
Following that, the next year marked the release of “United Alpha,” which was a 1000cc car. United Auto Industries had all the aspects required to emerge into the market as Pakistan’s first ever native car brand. Even though the vehicles mentioned above were the product of a joint venture with a Chinese Auto company, it still was a significant achievement due to Pakistan’s origin and ownership.
However, there is no other automobile manufacturing company that indeed originated in Pakistan itself. A sad but actual fact.
Future of Automobile Industry of Pakistan
Recently, Volkswagen, one of the most prominent and prevailing companies worldwide, along with being the world’s 2nd largest manufacturer of automobiles, was reported to have shown interest in investing by planting an assembly lineup in Pakistan.
Another distinguished South Korean company, and a worldwide giant in the automotive industry, Hyundai, recently showed interest in setting up a plant in joint partnership with a local textile company named Nishat Mills. According to recent updates, the MoU has been signed to produce commercial and passenger cars.
Jonathan Adashak, the Chief spokesman of Nissan, was recently quoted to have said, “Pakistan is certainly a market of interest for us at present.” Yet he said that there wasn’t an official statement yet.
Apart from that, there are no imminent plans regarding establishing a native car manufacturing brand without aid from another country.
