KARACHI: Despite a 36 per cent month-on-month improvement in demand for cars, jeeps and pickups in Nov­e­mber, the overall automobile sales plunged by 39pc year-on-year in the first five months of the current fiscal year.

Total auto sales in November stood at 18,391 units as compared to 13,502 units in October while 66,458 units were sold in 5MFY23 compared to 108,635 units in the corresponding period last year.

The 1,000cc segment dominated by Suzuki Cultus and WagonR did not show any growth in November from October while 1,300cc and above and below 1,000cc segments gave a robust performance in the above period.

Honda Atlas Ltd (HAL) sales fell to 7,925 units in 5MFY23 from 13,215 units in 5MFY22 while Suzuki Swift sales soared to 5,712 from 495 units.

Toyota Corolla and Yaris sales nosedived to 10,186 from 23,975 units in 5MFY22.

Suzuki Cultus and WagonR sales plunged to 4,088 and 2,899 units in 5MFY23 from 13,105 and 8,768 units the same period last year.

Suzuki Bolan and Alto660cc sales also suffered a drop to 1,973 and 20,719 units from 5,201 and 23,193 units in 5MFY22.

Jeeps and pick-up sales stood lower at 11,314 units in 5MFY23 from 18,332 in the same period last year. Toyota Fortuner and Revo sales fell to 5,298 from 7,883 followed by sales of 1,099 units of Honda BR-V and HR-V versus 1,625 units in 5MFY22.

Amid a depressed sales scenario, the assembler of Hyundai Tucson surprisingly beat its competitors by selling 1,877 units in 5MFY23 as compared to 1,091 in the same period last year.

The overall sales of 2/3 wheelers in 5MFY23 shrank to 523,354 from 795,943 units in which the share of Honda stood at 437,708 as compared to 563,575 in 5MFY22.

Slow progress in the agriculture sector and floods played havoc with the sales of tractors (Fiat and Massey Ferguson) to 10,498 units from 22,003 in 5MFY22.

Slowdown in business activities was well reflected in restricted truck sales to 1,405 from 2,503 units while bus sales grew to 256 from 224 units.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2022