KARACHI: The leading indigenous brand with 22% and 18% market share in motorcycle and three-wheeler categories, in the main rickshaws, United Motors is embarking on a foray in the small passenger car market. And with competitive pricing, it has the potential to tap into the market largely monopolized by Suzuki Mehran.
PakWheels, the leading local car industry portal by a distance, predicts that United Motors locally-assembled four-wheel 800cc Bravo shall be priced around Rs650,000, with booking commencing shortly.
The Elixir Securities Research Analyst Farheen Irfan, concurs, forecasting an annual production of 5,000 units, with pricing between Rs650,000 to Rs700,000. Suzuki’s lowest denominator, lacking many a feature that buyers take for granted in the West, the Middle- and Far-East, presently sells its VX model for Rs770,000 with the VXR variety for Rs840,000 apiece.
Bravo can, says Farheen Irfan, take a chunk of the Suzuki’s market by selling 5,000 units in 2019.
In fiscal 2018, Suzuki held sway by selling 46,221 units of Mehran – a whopping 21% of total car sales in the country, while contributing 31% to the Japanese manufacturers Pakistan revenue.
After presenting the Pakistani with a fait accompli for so long, Suzuki shall wrap up Mehran. But Suzuki shall definitely not forsake the small car domain that generates a staggering one-third of its entire revenues, mentioned Irfan.
That said, in terms of brand value Suzuki may be streets ahead of United, and definitely come up with a car that would not be a pushover for Bravo. In public perception as well, Suzuki is synonymous with Japanese precision while Bravo would essentially remain a put-together of Chinese origin.
Yet Bravo is worth the gamble for United, for it may find its own niche FAW’s 1,300cc V2 accomplished without really shoving hard the Japanese offerings in that class.
Since a car is a sizable investment for a lower- or middle-class buyer, quite often involving the family, Bravo may find the going uphill in terms of find acceptance.
Post the announcement of Auto Development Policy 2016-21, United Motors secured the category-A Greenfield investment status for automobile assembly and is said to have subsequently pumped in $18.1 million in the industry.
