Locally Produced Automobiles Will Be Delivered Up to 9 Months Late

If a customer orders a locally assembled car today, its delivery may take up to nine months despite the constraints on auto finance, hefty registration fees, and escalating prices.

Car Deliveries and Own Demands

Honda

Given the enormous demand for the new Civic, the automaker estimates that it will take four to eight months to produce its three models. The ‘new’ variations, which were introduced in August, will take three to four months to arrive, whilst the BR-V will be delivered to the owner in two to three months at the showroom.

Toyota

Buyers of the Corolla and SUV will have to wait four to five months for deliveries, while the Yaris will be delivered in two months. The Yaris has a low own-money value, whereas the Corolla and Grande models carry premiums of around Rs. 300,000 each.

Financing Restrictions

Aside from that, Toyota and Honda dealers experienced major pullbacks from banks that supply auto loans. This is mostly due to an increase in car prices following the Federal Excise Duty (FED), exorbitant registration fees on vehicles with engines larger than 1,000cc, and financing restrictions imposed by the State Bank in Q4 2021.

Kia

Owing to a semiconductor chip shortage, Lucky Motor Corporation (LMC) halted the bookings of the Picanto AT in December 2021, and those for the manual variant ended on 2 February.

As per Kia’s commitment, Picanto will be delivered in July, followed by Sportage variants in April or May. The delivery months for the two Stonic variants are February and June, while the Sorento and Carnival are readily available due to their low demand.

Despite complaints about expensive prices, high registration fees, and vehicle finance restrictions imposed by the State Bank of Pakistan, a Kia dealer indicated that the Sportage is still in high demand. According to sources, the Sportage has an own money of Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 50,000, the Stonic has an own money of Rs. 150,000, and the Picanto automatic has an own money of Rs. 200,000.

Suzuki

All Cultus models have been unavailable for booking for the last four months, with the exception of Alto, which is still available. Cultus automatic and ABS models, however, have own-money pricing ranging from Rs. 300,000 to Rs. 325,000.

Alto is also slated to be delivered within three to four months. The manual and automatic Alto variants have a Rs. 200,000 and Rs. 300,000 own money, respectively, while the VX variant has a five-month delivery term. The WagonR’s own sum is approximately Rs. 80,000.

Changan

Alsvin’s automatic variant, which costs Rs. 2.944 million, will be supplied in four months, while the sunroof variant would be delivered in 40 days.

To combat the developing own-money culture, huge taxes for various engine capabilities have been levied on registrations when bookings are made by persons and registrations are done under the names of other individuals.

Furthermore, automakers must pay the Karachi Interbank Offered Rate (KIBOR) plus a 3% interest rate on deliveries that take longer than 60 days after the first deposit.

According to Engineering Development Board (EDB) sources, automakers paid over Rs. 3 billion to customers for delayed deliveries between 2016 and June 2021.